Grieving parents pushed aside,VIPs line up to shed tears for Ramdev

Jha and his wife were allowed in too for precisely 10 minutes. Afterward,their son Swaroopam Kumar Girish,or Swami Nigamanand Saraswati as he was known was buried in a six-foot trench on the ashram premises.

Nigamanand,34,died on Monday,nearly four months after he stopped eating,apparently to protest environmental degradation in the Ganga at Haridwar. His spiritual guru,Swami Shivanand,has claimed he was poisoned in hospital in Dehradun where he spent the last six weeks of his life.

Under pressure from the swami,a second autopsy was carried out in the small room in the ashram where the body had been kept on ice. Shivanand has declared Nigamanand a saint,over whose body,Shivanand says,his parents no longer have a claim. This afternoon,the district administration handed the Jhas a letter that said they would not be granted the right to cremate their son.

We were allowed for 10 minutes into the room where his body was kept. After that the ashram chased us out. It is true that my son had not been in touch with us,but I am still his father,how can anyone deny me the right to cremate him? Jha,who arrived in Haridwar from Ranchi yesterday,said.

According to Jha,the district administrations letter said his son had become a sanyasi,and the family had no right over him; civil society and the ashram would be responsible for his last rites.

Aonla MP Maneka Gandhi,who insisted she had come to the ashram in her personal capacity,said she knew the cause that Nigamanand had been fighting for,and would continue the battle.

The Uttarakhand governments argument that scientific mining should be allowed in the Ganges,else the city will be flooded,is ridiculous. I know about Saraswatis cause since the day he started it… I was part of the movement. We will not let the issue die. No one should be allowed to politicize the issue, she said.

Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Processing Industries Harish Rawat demanded to know how Nigamanand could have died when he was on a drip in hospital. How come he slipped into a coma when he was forcibly fed? There were some people who wanted to kill him.

Former BJP ideologue Govindacharya declared that he favoured an inquiry by the CBI.

Along with the politicians,a long line of saffron-clad sadhus and babas thronged the ashram all day and gave fiery speeches against the administration. Among the prominent religious leaders was Swami Yatheeshwaranand of the Gau Raksha Aayog (Save the Cow Foundation).

District Magistrate R Meenakshi Sunderam said fresh viscera samples were taken after Shivanand alleged foul play and insisted that the samples be taken at the ashram.