Yamuna aarti: Bid to clean river, promote tourism

Syed Ali Ahmed

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 29

Soon after Diwali this year, the Delhi government launched a unique event, ‘Yamuna aarti’, on the banks of the river, thus replicating the age-old practice witnessed on the ghats of Varanasi and Haridwar for the Ganga.

Since the practice started on November 13, a debate too began whether the exercise had any religious history, with some priests in the vicinity discounting mention in religious scriptures. But the Delhi Government is clear that it is intended to bring into focus two issues—cleaning the river and promoting tourism along the banks of the Yamuna.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal led the ‘aarti’ performed by 11 priests from Varanasi at Gita Ghat near Kudesia Ghat in North Delhi. “Yamuna is not cleaned but this has been a very big start. We will revive the river within five years. A plan has been prepared to stop the flow of drains into the Yamuna within two years,” an official said.

The government along with the Union Urban Development Ministry plans to form a company on the lines of the Delhi Metro that will be tasked to keep the river clean and develop its banks to promote tourism.

The ‘aarti’ is performed each day at sunset by a group of priests. The opening day function incurred an expenditure of around Rs8 lakh, said Delhi CM’s media adviser Nagendra Sharma.

Yet there are others who hold a different view. “Yamuna aarti has no mention in history. It is even not mentioned in the Hindu scriptures. There is only ‘Ganga aarti’ that has been performed since thousands of years in Varanasi and Haridwar with a faith that Devs come there to celebrate Diwali”, said S Lakshminarayanan, president and honorary secretary of Jagadguru Shankra Charya Mahasamsthanam Dakshinamnaya Sri Sharda Peetham Sringeri in Delhi.

Prem Chand Sharma, one of the leading ‘pandas’ whose family has been living at Yamuna Ghat for generations, is also of the view that though the Yamuna Ghat in Delhi has its religious significance, ‘aarti’ of the kind has never been performed while it is routine for devotees to undertake it. The ‘aarti’ project initiated by the Kejriwal government, he felt, did not have a religious touch.

He felt that work done by the previous Congress government by constructing drains at Yamuna ghat to prevent sewage flowing into the river has not been de-silted, resulting in dirt directly flowing now. Sharma said despite spending Rs1,300 crore on the construction of sewage treatment plants, desired results could not be achieved.