Parliamentary debate of Ram Setu & BJP's conviction of its existence

 

 

Recently, in an incident related to the Ram Setu it was seen that the newspaper 'Telegraph' had published a misleading news that portrayed as if the Indian govt has disowned its stance for preserving the ancient structure of Ram Setu. The news titled "No conclusive proof of Ram Setu: Govt in Parliament" made it obvious with its choice of words for the readers to interpret that the govt has abandoned its strong sentimental belonging with the Ram Setu that resulted in a chaos. It seemed as if the newspaper attempted to attack the Centre or rather the BJP-led govt's pro-hindutva stance. Later it was realized, that what the title implicated had nothing to do in the entire news. In fact, the news also read the minister saying in the Rajya Sabha that "....it is difficult to pinpoint the exact structure that existed there but, there is some kind of an indication, direct or indirect, that those structures have existed."

 

 

 

 

Rather in contradiction to such claims, the BJP-led govt has stood in favor of the Ram Setu since a considerable period. In January 2021, Centre gave nod to the ASI for an Archaeological survey of the ancient and religious site of Ram Setu. However, the story begins long ago, in around 2005, when an ambitious project was proposed to put an end to the legacy of Shri Ram. The Sethu Samudram project was perceived as a potential threat for the Hindu sentiments from all around the world. But the project was finally scrapped after a lengthy series of 'tarikh pe tarikh' in the Supreme Court, during the term of Former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh. 

 

 

 

 

Prior to the administrative backing to scientifically investigate the Ram Setu site, in order to provide substantial evidence to prove the factuality of Ramayana, which is one of the objectives of the study, the issue of 'Ram Setu' has twice created a chaos between the believers and non-believers of the mythical origin of the creation. First instance of the chaos being Sethu Samudram Project and the second one being the release of a short promo of Science Channel's show 'What on Earth?'. It was observed, during both the times, how even the minimal consideration of religious sentiments of Hindus was completely shattered, merely for securing political agendas.

 

 

 

 

The Sethusamudram project was something, that the predecessor govt believed, was an effective solution for the ships coming from the west to easily reach the eastern coast of India, without going all the way beyond Sri Lanka to return back to Indian ports. What the project suggested as a solution to this problem was to drill the Ram setu, in order to deepen the water body that is posing as an 'obstacle' for the ships. After the project was approved, several petitions were filed at the Supreme Court to secure Ram setu which is a place of immense religious significance for the Hindus by the Former Sarsanghachalak of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), K S Sudarshan, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and similar other right-aligned bodies, while the UPA govt was in power.

 

 

 

 

 

In fact, it is a point to be noted that when the Centre was still portraying the project as a relief to address the issues of the shipping sector, the DMK leader M Karunanidhi had blatantly made a statement calling the drilling of Ram Setu as an act of revenge against Babri demolition, stating "They demolished the Babri Masjid, we'll break the Ram Setu." Karunanidhi's provocative statement, thus, instigated a political process as well.

  

The Apex court had been kicking away all the requests of the petitioners to save Ram setu as it seemed to be an impractical decision to the put the project on a permanent halt merely to care for the religious sentiments of a community. It was only after Subramanian Swamy, who has been striving hard to secure Ram Setu, provided a better plan for infrastructure development to deal with the issue of the shipping sector, that the court had to agree with the petitioners. The cost of the proposed Sethu Samudram project costed around Rs 3000 Cr, which included the destruction of a religious monument. Swamy provided with an alternative railway plan with a cost of Rs 600 Cr that seemed absolutely viable to the court and also excluded the destructive elements.

 

 

 

 

 

According to Swamy alternative plan, it was suggested to develop two Container ports, one either at Kanyakumari or at Tuticorin and the other at Chennai, and connect the two ports by the means of railways. After several rounds of hearings, the court finally accepted the petitions and the Sethu Samudram Project was scrapped with Former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh's statement that the ancient structure should not be ruptured in order to respect the faith of the people. During the term of NDA govt, the role of Nitin Gadkari, who was the Union Minister of State for Shipping, has been pivotal in further positive developments in the region.

 

 

 

 

In 2018, the issue again came to the forefront after the Ram Setu related video was released by the 'Science Channel', where the scientists are clearly seen stating that the structure is definitely not naturally originated. Testifying their claims is still an acceptable approach. However, several liberals went on denying any such statement made by the scientists in the video.

 

The dawn of 2021 brought the good news of the approval to a scientific excavation at the site of Ram Setu by ASI, that would involve the Underwater Archaeologists from the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), Goa. The research is expected to last for 3 years, that has started since the end of Mar 2021. NIO is also engaged in excavations at Dwarka with continuous archaeological developments in the region. Subramanian Swamy's efforts are yet on the way, with him trying hard for the declaration of Ram Setu as a World Heritage Site. 

 

 

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