Days after the BJP asked Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi to “do some research before speaking out against inter-linking of rivers”, Vishwa Hindu Parishad international president Ashok Singhal on Tuesday slammed the idea of inter-linking of rivers and said that “this could only benefit corrupt officials who would rake in huge sums of money in the name of undertaking a project of this scale”.

Speaking under the auspices of Ganga Raksha Manch, a body floated by RSS affiliates in association with Swami Ramdev, Singhal claimed that the “Uttarakhand Government had stopped fiddling with the Ganga after the organisation took up the matter with the state government”. He added that “inter-linking of rivers would prove disastrous for the country”.

Asked about the similarity of views expressed by him and Rahul, Singhal said: “(His father) Rajiv (Gandhi), too, had launched a Rs 1,500-crore Ganga Action Plan. Nothing came out of it.”

Singhal cited the “works of river expert U K Chaudhary” to argue his case, but refused to comment on why he did not oppose the idea during the NDA rule.

The inter-linking of rivers was touted as one of the flagship programmes by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government. It was endorsed, among others, by the DMK (then an NDA constituent), as also former President A P J Abdul Kalam.

Others like Magsaysay Award winner and water activist Rajendra Singh had argued against the idea.

Singhal also said that “he had never asked BJP leader L K Advani to quit his position as Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha” and that “these stories were being spread to create a rift between the two leaders”.