By IANS
Kolkata : West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya’s remarks questioning the existence of Lord Ram has re-ignited another controversy in the state with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) claiming he was trying to “appease Muslim vote banks” after the Nandigram fiasco by making “sacrilegious statements”.
“Buddhadeb Bhattacharya’s remarks are nothing but an attempt to appease the Muslim vote banks after the Nandigram fiasco,” state BJP general secretary Rahul Sinha told IANS.
“The communists have always hated god men. They had even spread canards against Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore and Swami Vivekananda. Probably the chief minister will realise his mistake later and express his regret like he did over his Nandigram remarks in New Delhi,” he said late Friday.
At a meeting in Kolkata Thursday to mark the 15th anniversary of the Babri Masjid demolition, Bhattacharya said: “Ram was born in the imagination of poets and Ram Sethu is a natural formation under the sea.”
In his speech, Bhattacharya blamed the BJP, saying it was using Ram Setu as a tool to “bring divisions” in the society.
Earlier, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK patriarch, M. Karunanidhi had questioned the existence of Lord Ram, which led to massive protests in many parts of the country with mobs resorting to arson and even attacking his house in Bangalore.
Ram Setu or Adam’s bridge is a chain of limestone shoals forming a link between Sri Lanka and India. The setu, which holds a sacred place in the heart of many Hindus, finds evidence in the ancient texts of Ramayana, which mentions that, Lord Ram and his army of monkeys built the setu to rescue Sita, who was abducted by King of Lanka, Ravana.
The dredging of Ram Setu came into light when the Indian government gave its nod to the multi-million dollar Sethusamudram project, which requires breaking a portion of Ram Setu to make the route navigable for ships around the Indian peninsula.