By IANS
New Delhi : The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) along with their organisations staged a massive rally here Sunday to protect the controversial Ram Setu off the coast of Tamil Nadu.
More than 500,000 supporters of Sangh Parivar from Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Delhi and other states participated in the rally organised by the Rameshwaram Ram Setu Raksha Manch at the Swarn Jayanti Park (Japanese Park) in Rohini north Delhi.
Prominent among those present in the rally include BJP president Rajnath Singh, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh, BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley, senior leader Sushma Swaraj and VHP leader Pravin Togadia.
BJP patriarch Atal Bihari Vajpaee sent a message to the organisers wishing a successful rally. Senior party leader L.K. Advani also turned up at the last moment.
RSS chief K.S. Sudarshan, present at the rally, criticised the government for constructing a Sethusamudram shipping canal, which requires the controversial bridge to be destroyed.
“It is an irony that while on the one hand, the majority of the people of the country do not want the Ram Setu to be destroyed and on the other, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, the union shipping Minister T.R. Baalu, and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi have vowed to destroy the bridge at all costs,” Sudershan said
“Ram Setu signifies India’s cultural heritage. We will not allow the government to go ahead with the (Sethusamudram) project.”
Sudarshan said the project would create many socio-economic problems for the people living in the coastal areas of Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
The RSS chief appealed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh not to succumb to the pressure of DMK to execute the project.
“The Prime Minister should not think about the survival of his government. If he scraps the project, he will get good wishes of the crores of Hindus,” Sudarshan said.
“The Ram Setu doesn’t belong to Hindu’s alone. Even the Muslims and the Christians acknowledge it as Adam’s Bridge.”
Critical of the government’s move to destroy the bridge, Sudarshan said the argument being touted by the government was that shipping vessels and ships had to cross an extra 440 oceanic miles in 36 hours thus wasting huge amounts of fuel.
“If the Ram Setu was destroyed, we would lose thorium which is available in 31 percent of the Indian beaches. The vast chunks of thorium would merge into the ocean and lakhs of fishermen would lose their livelihoods.”
VHP International Secretary Parvinbhai Togadia said: “Sri Lanka government had listed all ‘Ram Mandirs’ (temples) as tourists spots and is preserving them, then why cannot we preserve our historical structure,” said Togadia.
Ram Setu or Adam’s Bridge is a chain of limestone shoals forming a link between Sri Lanka and India. The bridge, which is sacred to Hindus, finds mention in the ancient texts of Ramayana, which says that Lord Ram and his army of monkeys built the bridge to rescue Sita, who was abducted by Lanka king, Ravana.
The dredging of Ram Setu was undertaken when the Indian government gave its nod to the multi-million dollar Sethusamudram project, which requires breaking a portion of it to make the route navigable for ships around the Indian peninsula.
Also speaking on the occasion was the firebrand ascetic from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Sadhvi Rithambhra, who said: “Ram is not a slogan and we are not at the mercy of the political leaders.”
Over 40 Hindu organisations associated with the saffron brigade took part, which resulted in massive traffic jam at the site of the rally and caused inconvenience to many people.
According to VHP member Vinod Bansal, the Ram Setu Shilapujan Yatras – rallies to protest damage to the bridge – have proved very effective in “educating people about the destruction of Ram Setu. Hundreds of such yatras are being taken out all over the country, including in remote villages”.
Bansal told IANS that temples, dharmashalas (free lodgings), community centres and several schools in the capital are all booked for the ‘Ram bhaktas’ who have reached here from different states.
“People had been accommodated at over 1,000 temples, 70 schools, 250 community centres and more than 50 dharmashalas with basic amenities,” said Bansal.
The Ram Setu Shilapujan Yatra began in Delhi Nov 20 and concluded Dec 16 after traversing several districts. Besides, two million pamphlets were distributed in Delhi to educate people about the destruction of the Ram Setu, the symbol of our great cultural heritage, said Anil Kumar, another member.
All main roads of Delhi leading to the place of rally were decorated with saffron flags and buntings.