Centre under DMK pressure

NEW DELHI: The politically fraught stance of the Centre on Ramayana and Lord Ram came up in the SC on a day when Vishwa Hindu Parishad scaled up its opposition to the project, which has raised the hackles of environmentalists as well.
In a huge mobilisation across several states, VHP cadre blocked traffic. While the protest earned the wrath of inconvenienced commuters, Sangh Parivar and BJP drew vindication from the controversial argument put forward by the Centre in the apex court.
BJP spokesperson Ravishankar Prasad attacked the government’s stance, calling it a classic example of the politics of appeasement."It is an insult to our cultural heritage and Hindu sentiments," he said even as he asked whether Prime Minister Manmohan Singh could dare make similar assertions with regard to other faiths. BJP also argued that the Centre, while doubting the historicity of Ramayana, had itself admitted that it had not carried out a study on the Ram Setu.
While the government is under tremendous pressure from DMK to press ahead with the project in the face of resistance, doubts were being expressed on whether the contents of the affidavit had been politically vetted. The surprise element being that the Centre could very well have limited itself to just the Ram Setu instead of venturing into an opinion on the epic itself.
Significantly, the Archealogical Survey of India said it was aware of the deep religious importance attached to Valmiki Ramayana and Ramcharitmanas. That said, it went on to argue that it could use only scientific criteria to evaluate the claim that Adam’s Bridge is the same as that built by Lord Ram. Recognising that it was treading on emotional ground, the agency quoted the Constitution and cited professional ethics to justify its views.
The government, which wants to demolish a part of the purported Ram Setu to dredge an 83-km-long canal linking Palk Bay and Gulf of Mannar, argues that the bridge is not a man-made structure, but a natural formation. The Sethusamudram project is expected to reduce travel time for ships moving between the Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal by a day.
Those who moved SC against the Rs 2,427-crore project have quoted Valmiki Ramayana and Ramcharitmanas to back their stand for the preservation of Adam’s Bridge. The court, on its part, has stayed dredging work, inaugurated by the PM in July 2005, till further orders.