SIDHPUR (PATAN): Amid a lukewarm attitude of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday performed the "Mahasangam'' (confluence) of the Saraswati and the Narmada rivers releasing waters from the Narmada into the non-existent Saraswati.

Though some 1,500 "sadhus and saints'' from all over the State and the leading Hindu organisations in different parts of the country were collected for the occasion, none of the leaders of the VHP were present. The ceremony was due to be presided over by the centenarian researcher and writer, K.K. Shastri, who is also the State VHP president, but he also did not turn up on grounds of ill-health.

It was not clear whether Prof. Shastri was advised against attending the ceremony but State VHP general secretary Dillip Trivedi, who was away in Madhya Pradesh, however, said the Parishad "welcomed'' the Mahasangam of the two rivers and it was a "big and pious occasion'' for Hindus. About the absence of the VHP leaders in such a major religious ceremony, Mr. Trivedi said it was an "official function'' and it was not necessary that the VHP should be represented. He said the local VHP activists were present at the ceremony and there was no question of the Parishad boycotting it.

The ceremony, however, was surrounded by controversy right from the beginning with a section of the Hindu religious heads decrying mixing of the Narmada waters with the Saraswati as Hindu "shastra'' consider both the rivers as "kumarikas'' (spinsters). Some historians termed the ceremony as "political gimmick'' claiming that the river Saraswati never existed in this part of the country and the "resurrection'' of the now-dead riverbed was performed by bringing water of the Sabarmati river from the upstream Dharoi dam with which the Narmada water was mixed on Thursday.

The Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, Arjun Modhvadia, as well as a spokesman of the Nationalist Congress Party strongly criticised Mr. Modi for spending "crores of rupees'' from the public exchequer for "personal political gains.''

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