Rally For Rivers - Issues Raised - 3

I think the only genuine concern some people had raised regarding Rally For Rivers, if you can even call it a concern, is about the choice of vehicle for Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev's drive.

It is a Mercedes-AMG G63 SUV.

Here again, there was a dichotomy in the type of concerns coming out. 

(1) Some people were popping their eye-balls out at the cost of the vehicle. These people were raising noise about how Isha Foundation is splurging money unnecessarily on this vehicle and is showing off its money clout. Most of these concerns seemed to be jealous but when someone first hears that it costs over 2 Crore Indian Rupees to buy, it does seem to be shocking.

(2) The fuel efficiency of the vehicle was quoted by some 'popular' car magazines and online news channels, apart from the usual bunch of detractors of Isha Foundation (as I have come to call them over time) to be too less. Some even mocked the whole effort just on the basis that this vehicle has a low mileage per gallon of Petrol. 

Now that we have the facts in hand, let me attempt to address both the concerns.

(Concern #1) Isha splurged money buying this G63 SUV

The basic fact is that Isha 'did not buy' the G63 SUV for this rally. It has been 'loaned' by Sundaram motors for only the period of this Rally to Isha Foundation.

Refer this letter given by Sundaram Motors to Isha Foundation officially:

https://twitter.com/ishafoundation/status/905716831792410624

Now that we have got over the fact that no money is wasted on the vehicle, the question remains if it is justified of Isha Foundation to use this vehicle for the rally.

I am asking 'why not'? Isha Foundation is a non-profit organization and cannot use funds received for social projects through volunteers for its whims and fancies. When an organization like Sundaram Motors is making such an extraordinary contribution to showcase their support to the 'Rally For Rivers' cause, it would be silly in my opinion to reject that offer.

I will address the concern regarding fuel efficiency of G63 in my next blog .. 

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Did Isha really cause problems for Noyyal river or Villagers?

I have earlier covered in one of my articles about this .. but I saw a silly article today on Vikatan magazine making a ridiculous allegation:

http://www.vikatan.com/news/india/101411-rally-for-rivers-by-isha-and-the-story-of-ikkarai-boluvampatti.html

In my opinion, it is nothing but low-stooping-attack in the garb of journalism.

Man behind the mask - Kalayarasu:

(1) Kalayarasu has always been against Isha Foundation and has been defeated in multiple cases he filed against Isha earlier. So, it is easily understandable why he has posted another baseless allegation against Isha Foundation.

(2) For the first time, he has accepted that the Isha Foundation buildings are beside the forest lands in beginning of this post. Earlier, he used to spread false news that Isha foundation buildings 'were' in forest lands. This itself proves how he shuffles around facts and his credibility.

(3) Kalayarasu does not produce any proofs but just makes baseless claims. For example, his claim of Isha buildings being on 800 Acres is a lie thrown around casually! His earlier claims in Facebook were 400 acres which he has suddenly doubled. Anyway, just like the earlier claims, the new ones are also baseless!

(4) The case that this lawyer apparently claims to have put in HC has never really come from the people of Ikkarai Booluvampatti village. 

Facts regarding this baseless allegation:

(1) If indeed there was a problem to the Ikkarai Booluvampatti villagers, then they would not be welcoming Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev's rally for rivers like this. Look at these images. 

Whole of the village is actually celebrating the cause of Rally For Rivers, as if they are worshipping a deity! 

Strike 1 right there!

(2) Isha Foundation's buildings are not on agricultural lands. Even the lands acquired to build AdiYogi statue were earlier declassified as wet lands since no agriculture happened there for over 10 years. It has been comprehensively proved time and again, in the High Court as well.

Strike 2!

(3) It is a baseless claim that Isha Foundation closed the 'Raja Vaykaal'. There is no proof shown but just a baseless allegation stated as if it is a fact.

(4) First, let us understand how a river forms. High school science stream kids also know that hundreds of acres of forest & tree cover is required to create a single water stream. Several such water streams usually combine to form a tributary, many of which further combine to form a river. 

Just because one 'Vaaykal' is closed by someone (anyone for that matter), it does not make the river die. It is like saying I closed 1/1000th of one of my nostrils and died of asphyxiation! 😀 This is the basic science which the lawyer is obviously missing.

Strike 3!

(5) What many people do not know is that the natural flow of Noyyal is seasonal. It occurs only during the north-east monsoon months. Noyyal has been having lot of problems in the last 3-4 years because of irregular water supply. When rain water supply has been fine, the river water flow has been fine too. But now that rain water supply is not enough, it is going dry.

(6) Truth of matter is that less than 1% of Noyyal river basin is in forest area. Refer page 10 of this document: http://www.atree.org/sites/default/files/Wm_Noyyal_SA.pdf

Given all these facts, the argument that Isha Foundation is causing problems for Noyyal river water does not even make sense, let alone the other baseless allegations in that article.


Is Isha causing any problems to the Tribals?

I have earlier posted my observations along with video proofs here.

http://kazhugupaarvai.blogspot.in/2017/03/is-isha-exploiting-or-supporting-tribals.html

Bottom line, Isha Foundation and the tribals are happy bunch co-existing. It is these so-called activists paid by missionaries to cause trouble that keep spreading false information. Here are the videos taken while speaking to few tribal villagers.

They are saying that the Isha Foundation has been doing a world of good to them including teaching them yoga, giving free medical facilities, educational support, vocational training and livelihood support to many of the Tribals.

This itself clearly shows that the allegations are absolutely baseless and that Isha Foundation enjoys enormous support with local villagers.


Is there a crooked attempt to fudge facts?

I trust so! In the Vikatan article, the map image has following title "ஈஷா அரசின் ஒப்புதலுடன் ஆக்கிரமித்துள்ள விவசாய இடம்" which means "Lands OCCUPIED by Isha with Government consent".

However, if you really Zoom the map and see .. almost the whole area highlighted in Yellow is that of Karunya university!! 

Either there is a sleight of hand by Karunya in this whole episode or Vikatan magazine went ballistic in throwing granades against Isha, accidentally dropping some on its own foot!


References:

(1) https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DIzYiusVwAE43Lx.jpg

(2) https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DIzYeMbVwAEQ6KQ.jpg

(3) http://www.atree.org/sites/default/files/Wm_Noyyal_SA.pdf

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Rally For Rivers - Is 8000980009 BJP's number?

Let's quickly get this out of our way first - This number 8000980009 was used by BJP in 2014 for a specific campaign but no longer!

This number is being used by the 'Rally For Rivers' campaign team only - since 2017. 

People go to such absurdities to malign a good cause by spreading news like this and gullible masses fall for it! 

I would even say that people spreading such rumours are against restoration of rivers and are really criminals working against India itself.

Rally For Rivers endorsed by Congress party 

For everyone's information, the cause of Rally For Rivers has been endorsed by the INC President, Ms Sonia Gandhi openly:

https://twitter.com/INCIndia/status/902188087886757889

Now, shouldn't people think why the Congress party would support this cause if the number is still being used by BJP?

And this endorsement came 45 days after the campaign was launched and support shown by several other celebrities / political parties. They have had plenty of time to verify all this before such a public endorsement!

Who else had used this 8000980009 number?

80009-80009 number was used earlier in:

2012 - Gutka Mukti Abhiyan
2013 - Statue of Unity
2014 - BJP

From 2015 to 2017, the 8000980009 number was with Horlicks company. Check this link: http://www.somuchthingstotell.com/2016/05/the-horlicks-immunity4growth-indiblogger-meet/

Even Coca Cola had used this number in the past! 

Am I leaking my information out by missed call?

This question is as ridiculous as it could get!

Suppose I call you and you do not know me, all you have about me is the phone number. Can I trace back that number and find out who called? May be through TrueCaller app .. possibly. But imagine if 1000 people give you missed call. Would you care to do lookup all of them? May be, if I am determined hacker .. barely possibly. 

Now scale it up. Already several lakhs of people have given their missed calls to this number. What about the scale when 10,000,000 people do it or even better 100,000,000 people? 

Do you even think it is possible to do a reverse number lookup in that large scale? There is absolutely no way to do it! Please rest assured that such things do not happen. These are all unnecessary fears spread by vested interests working against this campaign.

Can I also get such a fancy number in India?

Sure! Anybody can have or get a fancy phone number in India. It just costs a few more rupees. A simple Google search on fancy numbers brings up this:

Now, after this campaign is over and you as an individual want to take the 8000980009 number, you could apply to the service provider and get it! 

I want to take the 8000980009 number

I would say it is a bad idea to do it immediately. Typically once a phone number is used for a campaign, it will not be used by individuals or even for another campaign for a few years because many people would then call that number still inquiring about the campaign, etc. 

If you still want to go ahead with it, please do!

Conclusion

People cannot and should not take their privacy easy. But at the same time they should not fall prey to such silly rumours. 

In this case, odds are that it is a sheer coincidence for 8000980009 number used in an earlier campaign by BJP to be used for the 'Rally For Rivers' campaign now. 

If it was used by a Congress party campaign earlier, the anti-campaign elements would simply have been in a different way. Such detractors have no other jobs than coming up non-existent ghosts like this ..

If you are still not convinced, you need this!

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Rally For Rivers - Issues Raised - 1

When people cannot fight the cause, they start Ad-Hominem attacks on the person initiating it. That is exactly what seems to be happening with 'Rally For Rivers' initiated by Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev from Isha Foundation.

I thought as an outsider and someone who takes pride in researching topics in-depth, why not attempt to address the issues one by one? So, here we are ..


(Concern #1) Why are movie stars required to endorse 'Rally For Rivers'?

First of all the premise is incorrect that only Film stars were roped in to endorse 'Rally For Rivers'. Many celebrities from all walks of life had been invited, most of the time personally by Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev. A few had not responded but majority did! 

Am only listing a few here from many walks of life..

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw - MD of Biocon and One of the most successful women entrepreneurs of all time in India - has about 1.25 Million followers on Twitter

Kajol, one of the most charming Bollywood actresses - has about 1.1 Million followers on Twitter

Rana Daggubati - A popular Tollywood actor has over 3.5 Million followers on Twitter

Virender Sehwag - Former Indian Cricket Team captain with over 12 Million followers on Twitter

Anand Mahindra - Executive Chariman of Mahindra Group and one of India's foremost entrepreneurs is one of the primary sponsors of the Rally - has a little over 5 Million followers on Twitter

Sonia Gandhi - Supported the cause of this Rally through their INC handle on Twitter with around 2.4 Million followers

Yogi Adiyanath - Chief Minister of UP, with around 1 Million followers

Now that the premise of the question is removed, the basic question still remains about why so many celebrities are required. The answer lies in the numbers I just quoted above.

Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev has in multiple TV interviews with popular channels has reiterated that the 'Rally For Rivers' is not a mere rally for publicity. And that it is to bring about a permanent policy binding both Central and State Governments to take concrete actions for rejuvenation of India's dying rivers.

Any such government action would yield results over a period of at least 5 to 10 years only since active afforestation & management thereof takes that much time! Trees don't grow to our whims and fancies unfortunately.

If a Government has to take some step with such a long-term commitment, they would need massive public support in numbers behind them. That, my dear friends, is the key!

Rally For Rivers requests for public support through a missed call to this number - 8000980009.

When such popular public figures endorse this cause openly on Twitter, there is a hope that at least 10% their followers might follow suit. Even that can happen only when the celebrities repeatedly post about it. So, this is about gathering as much public support as possible to force governments that refuse to take action towards our dying rivers. 

Isn't that a good thing!? I mean, come to think about when national parties like Congress and BJP have openly endorsed any single cause and joined hands to work towards the nation's well-being!?

As of the time of writing this blog, this is no more a campaign from Isha Foundation. Common Public has taken it up in their own hands and are standing by this in a big way.

'Rally For Rivers' has seen many firsts and will definitely be a trend-setter in other areas too. Will continue answering other questions in remaining parts of this series.

References:

https://twitter.com/kiranshaw
https://twitter.com/RanaDaggubati
https://twitter.com/KajolAtUN
https://twitter.com/virendersehwag
https://twitter.com/anandmahindra
https://twitter.com/myogiadityanath
https://twitter.com/INCIndia

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The Art of Lo(i)ving and Rally For Rivers

I was going through Quora and found an interesting question - "what is the difference between Art of Living and Isha Foundation?"

I too had been thinking about it. One person I know who has attended yoga programs by both Sri Sri Ravishankar and Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev is 'My dad'. He vouches for both of them in the same tone though!

Both organizations have been doing tremendous service on the spiritual plane as well as social sectors. I have already covered extensively on the social work done by Isha Foundation. For those who do not about AOL (Art of Living) doing social projects, they have been active on:

- Women empowerment
- Rural Health management
- Training unskilled youth
- Tree plantations
- River & Lake cleaning activities, etc.

Quite a bucketful of things but they have been successfully doing this involving millions of people. There was one thing that stood as odd-man-out in my research though!

That AOL seemed to be jealous of the visibility Isha Foundation was getting!

I had heard rumours about it earlier but dismissed them off since they were just that - rumours. And I had not seen any visible proof of that, till recently.

The recent incidents with launch of 'Rally For Rivers' by Isha Foundation and it going viral with national media, celebrities and public alike seems to have irked a feather or two in AOL. Two of AOL's most prominent teachers took to Twitter trying to bully Isha Foundation and were promptly thrashed by Twitterati.

A similar attempt earlier had met the same fate, but that did not deter 'Bawa' who teaches 'World Unity' from taking a dig again!

This is a clear sign of desperation from AOL!!

The fate of such posts on Facebook was no different ..

To their credit, Isha Foundation has not gotten back at AOL with neither any official response nor unofficial to such pokes & digs.

One of the main reasons why India was conquered by Muslim invaders and the British was lack of unity internally. Phenomenal empires have succumbed to external armies simply because of this factor.

We Indians conveniently forget our history too soon .. or have been trained to be so under our Left-masters. When are these lost lessons from history going to be ingrained?

The cause of 'Rally For Rivers' is a great one and is in fact something that AOL has been working on, at a low key probably. The fact that Isha Foundation has given amplification to this cause does not demean AOL's work in that area. Whoever gets the job done most will be naturally recognized by the public. If AOL truly stands by the cause, it is best they join hands with Isha Foundation to make it even bigger and ensure action for public welfare bringing in all their influence too.

The vultures (Christian Missionaries and Separatist forces) are just waiting outside the camp to see the Hindu forces fall so they can feast on their carcasses.  I hope AOL is listening and stop quibbing about such things. It makes them unpopular, unnecessarily in the online world and does not help the cause of Hindu culture.

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What is the Rally For Rivers?

It is nice to break my blog silence. Lot of cutting-edge research work in between. There is a lot of talk about 'Rally For Rivers' recently. I was doing my own research on whether whether this is really needed at this point of time or not. Here are my findings.

For those new to my blog, I have already touched upon in my blog the state of Noyyal river earlier very briefly: 

http://kazhugupaarvai.blogspot.in/2017/02/noyyal-river-its-origins-problems-and.html

Are our rivers really in that dire a state now? 

A resounding 'Yes'! What we need to know are simple facts first:

• Our population at the time of Independence (1947) was about 30 Crores and we have about 120 crores now. So, that makes it a straight reduction of 25% of water available per capita compared to the 1947 levels.
• Add to that the fact that our rivers have been depleting steadily by 7% every year for the last few years.
• Add in the factor that most of our rivers are getting heavily polluted (Noyyal, Yamuna, Ganga are just the ones we know popularly of) year on year.
• We are already looking at less than 15% of consumable water per capita compared to 1947. It is expected to go down to 7% in another decade. 

Why is this coming up as a problem now?

• This is a slow-ticking time-bomb we have been sitting on. Most such problems if not addressed before they reach the inflection point, will quickly escalate into mass catastrophes.
• Many farmer suicides in the country are happening due to the debt issue (a separate blog soon on it) but a lot of it is happening because there farms are become infertile. No soil quality, no reliable supply of water and public apathy have been the key causes for this.
• Did you know that nearly 90% of the water utilization in Tamilnadu is primarily for agricultural purpose? This is so right since the 1990s.
• The river water depletion problem has been around for decades. Small protests have been happening, like the effort to stop PepsiCo from exploiting the Thamirabarani river in Tamilnadu. But these had not reached the common man.

How did this come to light now?

• Multiple factors:

- Rising drought conditions in all the states

- Increasing farmer suicides between 2010 - 2017

- Lack of drinking water for common public in multiple states since 2016

• The Chennai floods in 2015 highlighted a serious lack of water management in a major metro in India. The level of rainfall in December 2015 was unprecedented for Chennai and yet the city was staring at an extremely dry summer from February 2016!

Can we all just not plant trees to resolve this problem?

• We are talking about planting thousands of acres of land per state in India. No single individual or NGO or even an enterprise can achieve such a massive afforestation now. 
• Many NGOs and more importantly common public have to come together to first do the afforestation exercise. Also, proper care has to be given to the trees planted. It is not enough if we just plant and go. They will all dry up and the whole exercise would go wasted without proper maintenance.
• Complete support from the Government as a policy can only be the beginning of such an exercise. Without State & Central Government support, this would not work.

What is the solution being proposed?

• I went through the videos of 'Rally For Rivers' campaign. The first stage of awareness generation is in progress now. Watch this excellent video to first understand the magnitude of the problem:

• The second stage will be the implementation phase. Governments would have to bring in regulations to act on multiple fronts. Again, this video gives a clear outline of what needs to be done by the government on most of the fronts to address this issue.

• Briefly, the video talks about:

- plantation of trees near the primary river beds for a kilometer on each side

- plantation of trees near the primary tributaries for half-a kilometer on each side

- revenue generation using horticulture

- providing storage facilities for the tree products across the plantation areas

- change in food patterns 

• Is this going to be a success? That's a billion dollar question and I do not know. But then, which mass movement has been a success if most people only question and not act? :)

• I trust the success of this initiative lies in getting people to first realize the problem. Most people would then change their way of looking at water sources completely. We have to move from exploitation to care & cooperation, not for the river's survival, but our own!

How do we even know this works?

• This is not the first time someone is proposing such a solution. On a smaller scale, it has been implemented successfully in multiple states in the USA. Look up the River Revitalization Foundation link that's shared in the references section.
• This has been successfully implemented in Russia as well. 
• In fact, the twelfth five year plan by Indian Government has a lot of emphasis on Watershed development. 

Do we really need a national rally for this purpose?

• Probably not! But how else can one spread the mass awareness among all states? No state comes together with another for cooperating, especially when it comes to rivers! It appears that a lot of national leaders, political / industrial / public persona, are seeing the logic behind the campaign and supporting it.

• Unless it is like a mass campaign movement, it is not going to move the Governments. Take the classic case of Jallikattu movement as an example. However, this is not a protest but a campaign to get the policy implemented. 

Would this not impact industries and farmers?

• Farmers - possibly, yes. But if you have looked at the video, you will note that there are multiple recommendations for supporting the farming community. In fact, the policy notes that if properly implemented, it can increase the farmers' revenue multi-fold through this effort!

• Industries - Most likely, yes! Again, as a nation, it is time we all have to look at what works best for the country. Is it better for us to move a factory from a water source to a different place? Or is it better for us to die of thirst? Every sensible thinking person would make the right choice I trust. Of course, the Governments have to support such industries which relocate willingly and definitely punish the ones that do not. Public support is much needed on this front for the Governments.

Why do it near river beds? Can we not do this in our cities?

• Wherever such massive afforestation happens, the water levels will slowly raise and cause water streams over time (in less than 2 decades). If it is not near a water body, you will be creating new water bodies across places and will cause ecological disturbance.

• Did you know that the famous king Karikala Chola who built the Kallanai dam had actually done another brilliant thing? Not many noticed it but multiple Tamil literature sources point to Karikala having trees planted on both sides of the Cauvery bed. These trees helped prevent floods for a long time along the Cauvery river.

References:

These references are from various timelines just to indicate that the problem is not new. It is time for us to act together and get this done.

(1) http://www.rallyforrivers.org

(2) http://www.alevelgeography.com/rejuventation/

(3) https://www.water.artofliving.org/river-projects/

(4) projects.glc.org/wiconference/PDF/Gleffe.pdf

(5) http://www.conservationfund.org/what-we-do/natural-capital-investment-fundnode/342

(6) http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/river-rejuvenation-policy-a-must-for-every-state/article19398034.ece

(7) www.atree.org/sites/default/files/Wm_Noyyal_SA.pdf

(8) http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/v4nXpXNxSJtxQNlEbvtJFL/Indias-groundwater-crisis.html

(9) http://www.indiawaterportal.org/news/approach-restore-depleting-river-flow

(10) https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/07/half-india-rivers-polluted-new-government-report

(11) http://www.livemint.com/Politics/xb05tga2lJHln7oot8lhXN/Indias-misunderstood-rivers.html

(12) http://www.nbr.org/research/activity.aspx?id=356

(13) http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/97fuaF2aQkO9IjPiPAjMyL/Six-charts-that-explain-Indias-water-crisis.html

(14) http://www.firstpost.com/india/the-great-indian-water-crisis-data-drought-compounds-depleting-stock-2737186.html

(15) http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/P0Z53BOwcPw4SjMRnm028L/The-long-walk-to-water.html

(16) http://wrmin.nic.in/forms/list.aspx?lid=420

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