Swami Dayanand, a close aide and assistant of Ganga activist GD Agrawal, on Thursday, 11 October, alleged that he was murdered after a well-planned conspiracy by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government and held Union Minister Nitin Gadkari responsible his death.
Speaking exclusively to The Quint, Dayanand alleged foul play behind Agrawal’s death.
IIT professor-turned-environmentalist Agrawal passed away on Thursday in Haridwar after having given up food and water in his quest to save river Ganga. He had been subsisting on honey and milk for 109 days, and for his last two he gave those up too.
“This is, undoubtedly, a clear case of murder. He was fine all day and had also issued a press note saying he was ready to take the fruit intake and potassium intake prescribed by the doctors. The doctors then gave him some medicine after which they said he got a cardiac arrest. How is that possible? The cardiac arrest didn’t happen for 111 days when he was fasting. How did he die within 24 hours of being taken to the hospital? This is murder,” Dayanand told The Quint.
Also Read: GD Agarwal Dies Fasting to Save Ganga, PM Modi Condoles DeathHolding Prime Minister Modi indirectly responsible, Dayanand said that Water Resources and Ganga River Rejuvenation Minister Nitin Gadkari was primarily responsible for the “murder” and his greed had deeply hurt Agrawal.“The person responsible for this is BJP's Nitin Gadkari. He has been bestowed the responsibility of Ganga rejuvenation. Gadkari is the person responsible for his murder. Even PM Modi is responsible because Agrawalji had written letters addressing directly to the PM. But the person primarily responsible for this is Gadkari,” Dayanand told The Quint.
On Wednesday, Gadkari had said, "We have accepted almost all his demands (on cleaning of the Ganga). One demand was to ensure environmental flow and we have come out with a notification." The government on Tuesday had come out with the e-flow gazette notification.
The notification states the minimum environmental flows for Ganga river that is to be maintained at various locations on the water body.
The second demand, Gadkari said, was to bring legislation to protect the Ganga. He said the legislation has been sent to Cabinet for approval, following which it will be tabled in Parliament.
“The BJP calls itself harm ka thekedaar. PM Modi had said that mother Ganga has called him and he wants to give the river as much as possible. But Gadkari knows nothing about the Ganga, he doesn't worship it nor have sentiments for it. He only considers it a means of earning money. Agrawalji was very hurt because of his behaviour,” Dayanand said.
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