By IANS
New Delhi/Chennai : India’s ruling Congress party and the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) took on Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi Thursday for his remarks against Hindu god Ram, but the veteran politician continued his tirade shocking Hindus across the country.
Former deputy prime minister L.K. Advani, the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha, demanded in Chennai that Karunanidhi should withdraw his critical comments against Lord Ram.
“I would like the chief minister of Tamil Nadu to withdraw his statements, which I regard as an affront, pouring contempt on the religious feelings of the majority in the country,” Advani told the media.
Advani was in Chennai to call on ailing BJP leader K. Jana Krishnamurthy, before leaving for Bhopal where the party’s National Executive will meet from Friday to discuss the political situation in the country.
In New Delhi, the Congress, embarrassed first by a bungled Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) affidavit in the Supreme Court that questioned the existence of Lord Ram and later DMK’s tirade against the Hindu god, reacted after having been silent over Karunanidhi’s remarks for almost three days. The DMK is a key ally of the Congress.
“Nobody should make any statement that hurts the sentiments of any section of the society,” Congress general secretary Janardhan Dwivedi, a confidant of party president Sonia Gandhi, said in a brief statement.
But there was no stopping Karunanidhi, a self-claimed atheist who insists that Ram is a fictional character and that it is illogical to link him with a so-called bridge, Ram Sethu, which Hindu groups say will be damaged if a shipping canal gets built in the sea dividing India and Sri Lanka.
The central government, of which DMK is a part, wants to press ahead with the project, as it will cut short the navigational distance between the eastern and western coasts of India by nearly 800 km. But the furore triggered by the ASI affidavit has put a question mark on the future of the canal.
Karunanidhi first said Thursday that he had never wanted to hurt “anyone’s feeling” but only wanted to ensure that the Sethusamudram canal project went ahead as scheduled. He said this after a meeting of DMK’s top leaders at the party headquarters.
Hours later, Karunanidhi changed his tone and challenged Advani to “an open debate” on Valmiki’s Ramayana: “I have not said anything more than Valmiki, who wrote the Ramayana. Valmiki had even said Ram was a drunkard. Have I said so?
“Is Advani ready to discuss the Ramayana with me on the same platform after going through the Valmiki Ramayana fully?”
When reporters told him that Advani had asserted that “Ram is as real as the Himalayas and the Ganges”, Karunanidhi shot back: “Ram is as unreal as the Himalayas and the Ganges are real.”
In the meantime, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) accused the BJP of “diabolic opportunism”, saying it was now protesting the Sethusamudram shipping canal on religious grounds though it had earlier sanctioned the project.
“It was the BJP-led NDA (National Democratic Alliance) government which allocated nearly Rs.50 million for a feasibility study to implement this project in the 2000-01 budget,” the CPI-M mouthpiece People’s Democracy said.
“Having in the first place sanctioned the project when in government, the BJP is thoroughly exposing its diabolic opportunism in now seeking to oppose this very project for political benefit through disastrous communal polarisation,” said an article written by politburo member Sitaram Yechury.
Citing geological and scientific studies, the article said that Ram Sethu, a 30-mile chain of limestone shoals connecting India with Sri Lanka, was a palaeographical formation dating back to several thousands of years and was not man made.
Amid the war of words between BJP and DMK, Culture Minister Ambika Soni sounded despondent after meeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi Thursday to brief him about the ASI affidavit.
“I have explained to the prime minister the course of events. I have submitted all the papers. He heard me patiently. I am content with the meeting,” Soni said after her nearly 30-minute talks.
“I am a loyal Congress worker and would abide by the decision of the party president,” she said, when asked if she would put in her papers over the issue that has embarrassed the ruling party.
Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh, who is also the minister of state for commerce, and R.K. Dhawan had suggested that Soni should step down over the ASI affidavit. The ASI has since withdrawn the affidavit, and Ramesh has regretted his public remarks.
A visibly upset Soni maintained that she was not hurt by the attacks from within her party.
“There is no such thing (as feeling hurt) in politics. One has to learn and go ahead,” she said.
“I have been honest. But I realise that it is tough to be honest and it is not enough. You may have to do other things also,” she said.