The ashes of Ashok Singhal, one of the sturdiest pillars of the Sangh Parivar, were immersed in Ganga on Sunday.

The urn containing the ashes of the departed leader reached Haridwar late evening on Saturday in the form of Kalash Yatra halting at different places, Meerut, Muzaffarnagar and Roorkee in between for people’s tributes. Prior to immersion the urn was kept at Sripurnanand’s ashram in Kankhal in Haridwar where the saint community paid tributes to Singhal. Within the Sangh Parivar he was considered a role model for the Pracharaks (propagators). He was considered as a man who had identified his mission in life and knew how to achieve it as well as guide others for the same. Har Ki Pauri witnessed conglomeration of saints, Sangh Pariwar workers, ganga sabha priests, BJP leaders eminent people from various walks of life who had gathered to pay tributes to the Sangh leader. VHP’s international secretary Dinesh Chandra performed the last rites and immersed the leader’s ashes in Ganga on Sunday noon. Hridwar MP & Ex-CM Dr Ramesh Pokhariyal NIshank, Haridwar MlA Madan Kaushik, Ganga Sabha’s Chairman Purushottam Sharma and many other leaders were present.

The central secretary of VHP Rajendra Pankaj in an exclusive chat with The Pioneer said, “India has got its political freedom but it is yet to achieve its cultural independence. The temples, Maths are still under the rule of the Government which need freedom. Ashok Singhal fought for several cultural agendas whether it was social equality, the dev sthans (temples) needing honour, Ram temple’s restoration in Ayodhya or reverence of sadhus.”

Explaining about his link to the holy city, Pankaj said, “All the decisions of VHP related to Ram temple were made in Haridwar. He was linked to Haridwar since 1951. And for 31 years I was associated with him. In the last days, on 16 September this year, after his stay abroad he came to Haridwar travelling for 18 hours and did ganga snan (bathing in the river) He used to rub the sand of ganga on his body like soap and take a dip.”

The VHP leader Pankaj also told that Singhal had asked Baba Ramdev of Patanjali yog peeth during his visit to Patanjali yog peeth that he must work in dissemination of Vedic knowledge through all means.

looking at the backdrop of his life, Singhal was fascinated to the RSS while studying for B Tech degree at Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in the 40s. He had become a Sangh Pracharak in 1949 and belonged to a well-to-do family and his palatial bungalow, Mahavir Bhawan in Allahabad, is located just behind Jawahar lal Nehrus’ Anand Bhawan in Delhi. A portion of the bungalow is a Sanskrit residential school run by the VHP.

The BJP was very much benefited from the Ayodhya movement of Singhal and in the 1991 elections several sadhus and sanyasis campaigned for the BJP, some fought the elections and won. Pracharaks close to Ashok Singhal say that it was Singhal’s movement of aggressive Hindutva that benefitted the BJP. Singhal had devoted the later part of his life to the Ram mandir movement and several RSS Pracharaks feel that his death is sad and poignant for he did not witness the Ram mandir being built in his lifetime. But the VHP leaders present during the last rites said the entire team would fulfill the unfulfilled dreams of the leaders and make the Ram temple in Ayodhya soon.

Singhal had been suffering from respiratory problems before his death.