The Silent Yamuna: When a Sacred River Becomes a Political Stage

Someone once said —
“Rivers listen too… they just don’t reply.” Maybe that’s why the Yamuna is silent today. When a politician comes to perform rituals on her dark, polluted waters, she says nothing — she just keeps flowing, as she has for centuries.

Today, every political party wants to portray her in their own way.
For some, she is the “pure and sacred Yamuna” — where faith can be turned into votes…
For others, she’s a “symbol of pollution” — proof of the government’s failure.

But the truth is —
The Yamuna belongs to no one anymore.
She has become just an image — sometimes in a camera frame, sometimes behind a stage, sometimes trapped in a politician’s speech.

At times, it feels like
The Yamuna is like a mother who gave everyone water…
But when she became thirsty, no one cared to ask.

Every party gave her a place on their posters —
Some claimed, “We cleaned the Yamuna,”
Others accused, “They killed the Yamuna.”
Yet no one dipped their hands into her waters to feel that it’s no longer water… it’s poison now.

Perhaps it’s time
We stop seeing the Yamuna as a “political stage,” and start seeing her as the “vein of the Earth.”
Because when rivers die — it’s not just water that dries up,
but civilization itself.