It is not as though the usefulness of our mega-dam projects have not been questioned before. The Public Accounts Committee of our Parliament did so in the early eighties, and the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi speaking to all the States' irrigation ministers did so in 1986. Two senior bureaucrats, B.B. Vohra and Ramaswami Iyer have tried to have the policy pertaining to such projects reviewed. But all this has been to no avail. The mindset that what the colonial power initiated, must have been good, and could not be questioned, continues; even if that colonial power itself has thought better of the old policies. Similarly many senior historians continue to reject the geo-archaeological evidence about the Saraswati, which has been corroborated by written records. But since the colonials had called it a mythical one, and since its acceptance would have led to the weakening of their pet Aryan invasion theory, her earlier existence is not accepted by erstwhile colonials and Indians even today. In the case of the major and medium scale irrigation projects, the concerned authorities are happy with their mindset, as the policy allows them to control the largest allocation of development plans' funds, and to maintain huge establishments, which can be easily diverted for personal gain and comfort.

Open Sewage

They are not bothered by the devastating effects of the reduction of rivers to "Ganda Nalas", of urban sewage flowing into them and seeping into ground water to spread diseases, with Hepatitis 'B', killing children; and of the risk to millions of pilgrims bathing in contaminated rivers and drinking their water as part of the 'Aachman' religious practice. They are equally unconcerned about the essence of Ganga 'Jal', the Ganga waters being destroyed; whereby the only waters in the world which contain the bacteria killing bacteriophage are being contaminated with toxic chemicals and the protective micro-organisms are being killed.

Ablusion at Mathura