Ganga chocking; they’re looking for Saraswati
Thinker, rationalist Amit Madhesiya has made a documentary ‘Searching for Saraswati’. His documentary is based on the references that this river existed during Purana or Rig Veda times. This documentary throws light on several aspects of the river that disappeared and the government’s decision to look for its traces.
Within one year of assuming the office, the Modi-led NDA government had allocated additional funds of Rs 50 cr for this purpose. This documentary speaks about mixing mythology with reality. Any research should have scientific basis. But our researches these days are based on Puranas and other forms of texts that are mostly open for interpretation that can mean anything.
Our government has set aside money to find out if cow’s urine has any medicinal value. Efforts are on to reject the universal science and turn the country to prehistoric era based on Puranas with such schemes and projects. This documentary film talks about the significance of focusing on the present than going into the imaginary past.
India is a land of rivers. We take the names of rivers such as Ganga, Yamuna, Sindhu, Cauvery and Saraswati with great reverence. If such a river actually existed on the lands of Rajasthan and Haryana, they would have been different by now. Instead of looking for a river that probably existed or never did, it is better to look at how well we have been able to preserve the existing rivers.
River Ganga which has been chocking since ages, is a metaphor of the depleting cultural, social and moral values of the country. One has to clearly see the way she gets polluted at the very banks of most revered pilgrimage areas, which in actuality, worship her.
On one hand, there are discards of the faith, and on the other there are rejects of ‘development’. This river is a living testimony of the man’s cruelty of turning a live ecosystem into drainage. This is not limited to Ganga’s case alone.
Government has been spending thousands of crores on purification of Ganga. Environmental experts have declared the Ganga water unfit for consumption. We have been exploiting her while calling her ‘mother’ and other synonyms. Thousands of dead bodies have been discarded in the name of ‘faith’.
Those millions of items from religious ceremonies enter her stream every day. To top this all, many industries along her path, send their effluents into her waters. All this has to be stopped for once before starting to clean the waters of Ganga. If this is not done, the river gets pollutants into its stream as simultaneously as they get cleaned up.
If a government has the willpower, it can indeed do this task better than it has ever been done. For instance, we can look at Thames river in London which was almost dead and was eventually brought alive owing to people participation and government’s efforts.
If one wonders about the possibility of ‘killing’ a river and if that can ever happen, we have to look at China for such example. About 2000 live rivers have died in the recent past in China. Many tributaries are on the verge of dying since environmental dangers have been overlooked in a hurry to industrialise.
Rivers are not just water bodies. They host a lot of organic life in them. They feed the greenery around. A whole ecology thrives because of them. To kill a river is to end all this. Sea gets its roar owing to the rivers that join its waves. There are ignorant people who say we don’t touch the rivers, but we just send out effluents through the drain pipes.
There is a difference to a river and a drainage. Mining has prompted many people to change the course of rivers in Uttarakhand. We are beginning to make more Uttarakhands because of our greed.
Even the joining of rivers is another dangerous adventure. This scheme is pitted at Rs 5 lakh crores. One wonders about its success and feasibility. If ecologists warn against such schemes, the politicians ask about the ways of providing water to growing cities and villages.
To tap every available water source after having exhausted and exploited all options is not the right way of working on this issue. Land is not arid. It is very fertile. We have to soak the water into the ground to tap it later. There are experts like Rajendra Singh who have created water bodies in places like Rajasthan by using simple technique such as soak pits. They should advise the politicians on water resources instead of trusting corporate lobbies.
Last but not the least, former PM Atal Behari Vajpayee died recently and the government declared his ashes would be immersed in all rivers of India. On one hand, we have a government that makes rules such as penalizing the ones that as much as spit into river.
On the other, the government flouts its own rules to immerse the ashes of their party leader in rivers. Then how does the govt retain a moral right to even criticize the devotees who want to throw dead bodies into the river? If the leaders immerse ashes and bones, devotees will go a few steps further and push a whole body into the river. We see people sacrificing goats and chickens with blood flowing like a stream in the drains during Bakr Id.
Evil minded people discard body parts of animals into rivers too. This is against the spirit of a festival that emphasizes on internal and external purity of mind and body. Similarly, the status of our rivers, tanks and other water bodies reaches a point of worry during Ganeshotsava.
Because people will always prefer to immerse the idol in a public space such as a lake than their own well if they ever have one. Till the time our people assume our lakes and wells are as much our property as they are of the nation, rivers like Ganga will continue to get polluted. Their purification will start only when this wisdom dawns on us.
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Iran Shocks World, Hits F-35
America's most advanced fighter jet, the F-35, was never hit in combat — not once, in its entire history. Countries spend over ₹900 crore to buy just one of these aircraft. The whole world believed this plane was untouchable. Then, on March 19, something happened over Iranian skies that shocked military experts across the globe.
Iran hit it. And nobody saw it coming.
America Was Too Confident — That Was the Problem
Before understanding how this happened, you need to understand what America believed going into this. The US had been bombing Iran since February 28. After roughly 20 days of heavy strikes, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that Iran's air defences were completely destroyed — finished, flattened, gone.
US President Donald Trump even said proudly, "We can fly wherever we want, and no one is even firing at us."
Based on this confidence, America flew its prized F-35 deep into the heart of central Iran. That alone tells you how sure they were. You don't send your most expensive jet into enemy territory unless you believe there is zero danger.
But Iran, a country under heavy international sanctions, still had something left. And it used that something extremely well.
So How Did Iran Actually Hit a Stealth Jet?
Here is where it gets interesting for regular people to understand.
We have all heard the word "stealth" — it sounds like the plane is completely invisible. But India Today explained that stealth only means it is hard to detect by radar. Hard — not impossible. It does not mean the aircraft is totally invisible.
Think of it this way. Even if you cannot see someone in a dark room, you can still feel their body heat if they stand close enough. That is almost exactly what happened here.
The F-35's engines produce enormous heat. Iran's weapon likely used an infrared sensor — basically a heat-seeking system — to detect that heat, lock onto it, and follow the jet. No radar needed. The F-35's biggest advantage, its radar-invisibility, simply did not matter.
The weapon Iran likely used was the 358 missile — also called SA-67 — which is a loitering munition. Think of it as a slow, intelligent drone that flies around patiently waiting, scanning the sky for heat signals from aircraft engines. Once it finds one, it chases it down. Iran has used this exact weapon before against American MQ-9 Reaper drones — and since this war started, America has already lost more than 12 of those drones.
This Has Happened Before — In 1999
This is not the first time America's "invisible" aircraft was brought down by a smarter enemy.
In 1999, during NATO's bombing campaign over Serbia, the US flew its F-117 Nighthawk — which was then considered the world's most advanced stealth aircraft. Serbian forces shot it down using an old Soviet missile system from the 1960s. Not with new technology — with clever thinking. They briefly switched on their radar, caught the jet at the right moment when its stealth was less effective, and fired.
The lesson both then and now is the same — no aircraft is completely invincible. Smart tactics can beat expensive technology.
Why This Changes Everything in the Iran War
Here is the bigger picture that really matters.
America and Israel had told the world that Iran's air defences were basically dead. Based on that, they sent massive B-1 and B-2 bombers — aircraft that are normally used only when a country is 100% sure it controls the enemy's sky. That is a huge military risk to take.
But if an F-35 — the most advanced aircraft in the sky — can still be hit, then Iran's defences are clearly not dead. Some pieces are still very much alive and working.
This means the US and Israel may now be forced to completely rethink their war plan. Their jets may need to fly higher, use longer-range weapons, and spend far more time and money finding where Iran's remaining defence systems are hiding underground.
Around 15 countries use the F-35 today. Even India was offered this jet by Trump during PM Modi's White House visit — though India has not shown interest so far.
Geopolitical expert Adam summed it up simply — a heavily sanctioned country just tracked, chased, and hit the world's most expensive stealth jet. That is not a small thing.
Sometimes, one moment changes everything.
(Girish Linganna is an award-winning science communicator and a Defence, Aerospace & Geopolitical Analyst. He is the Managing Director of ADD Engineering Components India Pvt. Ltd., a subsidiary of ADD Engineering GmbH, Germany.)
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views, policies, or position of the publication, its editors, or its management. The publication is not responsible for the accuracy of any information, statements, or opinions presented in this piece.
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