Founder of Matri Sadan sits on fast unto death agitation
HARIDWAR: Citing health deterioration and loss in weight, district administration shifted agitating Brahamchari Atmabodhanand to city-based Shri Ram Krishan hospital from Matri Sadan ashram on late Saturday night. Brahmachari Atmabodhanand had lost nearly 7kg weight since February 23 when he started fast unto death agita- tion for causes of holy Ganga and its ecology at Matri Sadan ashram premise.
Led by sub-divisional magistrate Gopal Singh Chauhan and tehsildar Ashish Ghildiyal, heavy deployment of police personnel was done during the shifting of Brahmachari to the hospital.
Aggrieved by the police-administrative action, founder of the Matri Sadan ashram Swami Shivanand Saraswati has sat on indefinite agitation to ensure continuity of the agitation.
“I have decided to carry forward the fast agitation of Brahamchari Atmabodhanand who was into 19th day of protest when administrative team suddenly arrived and shifted him on medical grounds.
Matri Sadan has been raising the issues related with the causes of sacred Ganga, ecology and environment conservation which through this agitation we are continuing forward,” said Swami Shivanand Saraswati.
The seer pointed that the demands of his agitation are the same as of Brahamchari Atmabodhanand, namely scrapping of all the hydel projects on Ganga and its adjacent tributaries like Alaknanda, Bhagirathi, Mandakani, prohibition on quarrying from Raiwala till Raighati-Bhogpur in Haridwar, shifting of stone crusher units outside from 5km periphery of Ganga riverbed and enactment of Ganga Act. Notably, last year too Swami Shivanand Saraswati had sat on a month-long agitation regarding the same demands with his disciples Brahamchari Atmabodhanand and Sadhvi Padmavati
also resorting to several similar agitations in past few years.
Recently, noted social activist Medha Patkar and Magsaysay awardee Rajendra Singh also extended support to the Matri Sadan ashramites’ agitation urging the government to instantly look into their demands.
This is not the first time that seers associated with Matri Sadan have started agitations for the cause of Ganga. In January last year, Uttarakhand police forcibly lifted 24-year-old Ganga activist Sadhvi Padmavati from Matri Sadan ashram premises in Haridwar where she had been on fast unto death for 48 days.
In 2019, Brahamchari Atmabodhanand, had undertaken a 194 days of fast unto death agitation in phases for the same cause.
In 2018, Gyan Swarup Sanand, a former Indian Institute of Technology professor,whose original name was Prof GD Agarwal, died in AIIMS Rishikesh on 112th day of his hunger strike on October 11, 2018. After his demise, Sant Gopal Das had announced to carry forward the agitation.
However, within 10 hours of his announcement, a team of the district administration, along with doctors, reached Matri Sadan ashram and lifted the seer at night and took him to AIIMS Rishikesh.
Earlier on June 13, 2011, after 114 days of indefinite fast unto death at Matri Sadan ashram on same demands, young Swami Nigmanand had died under suspicious circumstances.