Giving a saffron tinge to green issues for vote bank is unwarranted
The
controversy is that the 48 km long natural bridge made of shoals connecting India with Sri Lanka is threatened with destruction. The RSS and its political wing BJP is up in arms against government’s move and have launched a national campaign to save Ram Sethu, because they see it as annihilation of Hindu cultural heritage. RSS and its associated organisations prefer to call the Adam’s Bridge (named by James Rennell, the first Surveyor General of British India) as Ram Sethu. Ashok Singhal, of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) told B&E, “The bridge is related to ancient saga of war between the good and the evil – how Lord Ram led his army using the viaduct to lay siege on Ravan in Lanka. And this was certainly one of the most invincible barrier in those times.” And as expected the Hindu organisations are raising the level of protest against destruction of the bridge for the sake of creating a navigable channel (connecting the Gulf of Mannar and Palk Bay through Adam’s Bridge). The channel will obviate the need for the ships plying between the east and west to go around Sri Lanka, thus reduce transit distance.
In a letter written recently to the Prime Minister, the BJP leader Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi argues that the government needs to find an alternative alignment for the channel. Citing the bridge as an important natural structure capable of preventing tsunami and other catastrophes, Joshi communicated to the PM that the government was ignoring the advice of the experts, who want this bridge to be undisturbed. The Sethusamudram Corporation, however, maintains that the dredging will not affect the bridge.
If RSS intends to give credibility to its campaign, it needs to remove references to mythology, because more important than the Adam or Ram is the issue pertaining to the livelihood of the fisher-folk & destruction of marine life.
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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2007
An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative
