By IANS
Chennai : Tamil Nadu’s ruling DMK and the main opposition AIADMK traded arguments over the Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project (SSCP) as the central government withdrew its controversial affidavit on the issue before the Supreme Court.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi said he did not see anything wrong with the affidavit which expressed doubts whether the Hindu god, Lord Ram, ever existed.
“The Ramayana is an imaginary story based on a war between the Aryars and Dravidars (Aryans and Dravidians),” Karunanidhi said at an official function in Salem Friday.
While the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government is pushing the SSCP, a dream project of the DMK aimed at shortening the navigational route around the Rameswaram peninsula, several Hindu organisations have opposed the plan.
Citing the epic Ramayana, they say that the canal project would damage Ram Sethu, the bridge believed to have been constructed by Lord Ram several millennia ago. Scientists, however, say there is no archaeological evidence to support the contention.
The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), on behalf of the government, had told the apex court this week the Ramayana was part of mythology, leading to countrywide protests that forced the government to withdraw the affidavit Friday.
Karunanidhi alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the AIADMK were using the myth of the Ram Sethu “to stall the execution of the SSCP”.
AIADMK leader J. Jayalalitha Thursday filed a suit in the Supreme Court, seeking to stop blasting the rock formation considered sacred by the Hindus and to change the alignment of the proposed canal.
Criticising the government over the affidavit, she said: “The centre has lost credibility” by saying there was “no evidence” of the events described in the Ramayana.
“The government has insulted the religious sentiments of crores of Hindus,” Jayalalitha said.
“Secularism means equal respect to all religions. By insulting the feelings of the people of one religion, the government has lost credibility.”
Meanwhile, film star-turned-Rajya Sabha MP Hema Malini of the BJP said that though the affidavit was withdrawn, “it had hurt the sentiments of people and protests are natural because they don’t like it.”