By IANS
New Delhi : The Congress Monday asked its leaders to gag themselves over a shipping canal project after another leader asked Culture Minister Ambika Soni to quit over a court affidavit questioning the existence of Hindu god Ram.
In an unusual intervention as a row over the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) affidavit in the Supreme Court appeared to be spinning out of control, the Congress said it was time everyone kept quiet.
“The issue has already been resolved as the government has withdrawn the controversial affidavit,” Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi told reporters here.
“The less they speak the better,” he added, referring to the public utterances of some Congress leaders asking for Soni’s resignation.
After Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh two days ago suggested that Soni should step down over the ASI affidavit saying there was no historical or scientific proof that Ram existed, Congress leader R.K. Dhawan said Monday that she should have owned up moral responsibility for the fiasco and resigned.
The ASI functions under Soni’s ministry of culture. The affidavit was filed to justify government plans to build a canal in the sea dividing India and Sri Lanka that Hindus say would destroy a so-called bridge built during Ram’s time.
At the same time, Singhvi justified the leaders’ remarks on the Sethusamudram shipping canal project as a reflection of the “vibrant democracy” in the Congress party.
“Most of the (statements) were their personal views. The Congress is a large democratic party unlike several others,” he said.
Soni, who has come under fire over the ASI affidavit, has expressed her willingness to quit if the party leadership asks her.
Responding to Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy’s petition seeking national monument heritage status for the Ram Sethu (Adam’s Bridge), a chain of limestone shoals between Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu and Mannar in Sri Lanka, ASI told the Supreme Court there was no scientific basis or rationale behind the demand.
The ASI affidavit has provided fodder for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to rant against the $24 billion canal project.
The BJP and its allied organisations say the project would damage Ram Sethu, believed to have been built by Lord Ram’s army of monkeys to cross over to Lanka to rescue his abducted wife Sita from king Ravana.
Although two ASI officials have been suspended over the affidavit, the internal wrangling in the Congress is surfacing.
Senior party leaders Digvijay Singh and Salman Khurshid have spoken in support of Soni, who has claimed that ASI officials did not make the changes in the affidavit she had suggested.
Meanwhile, a section in the Congress argues that it is unfair to point fingers at Soni alone as the affidavit finally passed through the law ministry.
“The law minister is also equally responsible for the fiasco,” a leader said, adding that the issue had turned out to be a “major political goof-up that will cost the party dear”.
The ASI has said that Hindu epics such as “Valmiki Ramayana”, “Ramacharitmanas” by Tulsidas and others cannot be said to be historical records to prove the existence of the characters or the occurrences of the events depicted in them.
Congress leaders also pointed out that the BJP, which emerged as a major political force by leading an emotive campaign against the Babri mosque in the 1980s, would try to cash in on the Ram Sethu issue.
“All those responsible for providing such an emotive issue to the BJP at a time when there is a possibility of general elections should be punished,” demanded one Congress leader.