Click to play videoThe Ram Sethu controversy continues to create trouble for the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government. The Congress is now a house divided with open calls for the resignation of Culture Minister Ambika Soni.
Soni is under pressure to quit because of the controversial government affidavit, which said there is no scientific or historical evidence to prove the existence of Lord Ram.
The government has withdrawn the affidavit. But now the BJP has vowed to make the issue an election slogan and says, “We always told you didn't we that the Congress is 'anti-Hindu”.
But what's more worrying for the Congress is that however hard it tries to appease Hindu sentiments, its ally the DMK continues to deny the existence of Ram. Tamil Nadu, Chief Minister Karunanidhi has said that Ram was an imaginary character.
Karunanadhi adds that those protesting about the religious importance of the so-called Rama Sethu are ”communal jackals”. Who is Ram?” asks Karunanidhi, “from which engineering college did he graduate?”
So while the North India has been reeling under the protests and furore against the planned Sethusamudram Shipping Canal project, which is a dream project of the DMK aimed at shortening the navigational route around the Rameswaram peninsula, the southern states have been calmer.
So does that mean that the Ram Sethu is an irrelevant issue in the south of Vindhyas?
DMK leader and Tamil Nadu's Minister for Higher Education, K Ponmudi, MP and General Secretary, BJP Ananth Kumar and Professor of History, Delhi University, Mahesh Rangarajan debated the issue on Face The Nation with Sagarika Ghose.
Hey Ram!
The statements of Karunanidhi saying Ram is an imaginary character and “Was Ram a civil engineer”, are tantamount to casting doubts on the existence of the Hindu God.
When Ponmudi was asked if it was progressive to insult a faith that many hold dear, he said, “It is not insulting religious feeling. The Dravidian movement is about rationalism. And when these beliefs degrade our way to progress, we have to fight against those superstitions.”
“This is merely a superstition. Anecdotes in history cannot become history,” the DMK leader added.
But would Ponmudi say similar things about other faiths – that Jesus Christ was a myth in Christianity, and so was the Prophet to Islam – or is it just Hinduism that seems superstitious to him?
“I am a so called Hindu. I can criticise my religion. But my religion should not block progress. And even when Christianity and Islam hamper progress, we criticise them,” he said.
So while members within the Congress try to settle scores among themselves, the BJP is whipping up a movement. Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has gone on the offensive saying – Ram is for Indians. He wasn’t born in Italy.
When asked if the BJP is worried that the people aren’t really worried about these backward issues, Ananth Kumar said that the Ram Sethu issue has been reverberating in the entire country.
“The Congress retreated within a day and claimed that they had committed a huge blunder and that Ambika Soni should go,” Kumar said.
Kumar pointed out that the ASI officials have been suspended only because they insulted a faith and history.
BRIDGE OF CONTROVERSY |
 Ram Setu is a mythical bridge southeast of Rameshwaram, Tamil Nadu, connecting with the Talaimanar coast of Sri Lanka. |
| Hindu groups say the Rs 2087-Sethusamudram project, which will build a canal from the west coast of India to the east coast without going around Sri Lanka, will damage the Setu. Work on the project began in July 2005. |
| Hindu groups believe Lord Ram’s army built the Setu to cross over to Sri Lanka and rescue Sita. The Government says the Setu (bridge) is actually a natural, 30-km-long chain of sand banks. |
| The Supreme Court has restrained the government from causing any damage to the Setu. |
| The Sethusamudram Ship Canal Project will dredge a channel in a narrow strip of sea between India and Sri Lanka, reducing distances and cutting costs for freight traffic. |
Aryan vs Dravidian
Karunanidhi has quoted former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, and said Ramayan was a story based on the fight between Aryan and Dravidian races. Therefore in Tamil Nadu, Ram is not considered a hero. He is in fact considered a symbol of Aryan, Hindi speaking, Sankritising north.
“Both Karunanidhi and Ponmudi are blind if they don’t want to see the light of the day,” Kumar said.
Kumar lashed out at the two DMK leaders and said they were “rank opportunists”. “It is the height of appeasement politics and people will teach them a lesson,” the BJP leader added.
When Mahesh Rangarajan was asked if this movement has any resonance in Tamil Nadu, he said within TN its resonance will be limited.
“If you contrast TN to the Hindi-speaking belt, in much of the Hindi-speaking belt Ram is seen as the Maryada Purushottam which is part of the lived tradition of daily life,” Rangarajan said.
However, he added, the religious traditions are different in southern India. Even among Brahmins in TN (who are only three per cent of the population), Ram is largely a deity of the Vaishnavas.
“The tone that Karunanidhi has adopted has less to do with Hinduism and Islam, and more to do with rallying Dravidian sentiment. And the fact that Jayalalitha has chosen to speak out in this issue, picking up cultural objections to the project, in a sense gave him the opening he was looking for,” Rangarajan said.
“It will now be very difficult for Jayalalitha to get the other smaller Dravidian parties with her in a general election which is to be held 20 months from now,” he added.
When asked if the Dravidian movement can be galvanised on this issue of Ram, Rangarajan pointed it was not about Ram and the Ram Sethu, but about culture both on the part of the BJP and DMK.
“There are two elements to this. You saw the difference in terms of attitude of the DMK and BJP both of which are cultural parties. And here the objection to those who are protecting the Rama Sethu are combined with the belief that the Sethusamudaram project is the key to the development of southern Tamil Nadu,” Rangarajan said.
Ram, a role model?
Can Ram be a modern role model in today’s society when he left is pregnant wife in the forest; he beheaded Sambhuka, who is a lower caste, for daring to recite the Vedas; he killed Ravana’s son Meghnath and Bali by deceit. Why then is he called the Maryada Purushottam?
“Ram has universal appeal,” Ananth Kumar said.
In the DMK’s criticism of Ram, he is referred to as being opposed to women and to lower castes.
“He was never opposed to women or lower castes. And if the DMK is glorifying Ravan who abducted Sita and was the first terrorist of mankind, God save them. They are distorting culture for votebank politics,” Kumar refuted and emphasised, “It is Ram who is epitome of eternal values.”
So when the DMK venerates Ravan and not Ram who is an article of faith for the whole country, aren’t they out of touch with what India thinks?
“Any social movement tries to interpret History. Particularly in Tamil Nadu, we reinterpret history for the upliftment of the downtrodden. But the BJP and other people want to keep the people in darkness,” said Ponmudi.
Congress clarifies
Does is the reaction of the Congress – the hasty withdrawal of the affidavit (claimed that mythological texts cannot be regarded as “historical record” and they don’t prove the existence of characters mentioned in those texts), now divisions within the Congress, the shamefacedness on part of them – surprising. Is the Congress worried about losing out on Hindu sentiments?
“Congress seems to have developed a sense of cold feet,” Rangarajan said.
In the future if the Congress persists in being what is called “soft saffron”, does one see Karunanidhi holding out a threat and saying he will withdraw from the coalition?
“Congress is practicing soft saffron along with talking about the Sachar Committee Report. Karunanidhi’s statement should be taken very seriously because He has said that he is not attacking the Centre, but doesn’t want to give in to pressure of what he calls ‘communal forces’,” Rangarajan said.
He pointed out that the issue is not about Ram Sethu, but about the heart of politics and the identity of two warring parties – the DMK and BJP.
“The 40 seats in TN and Pondicherry are the bedrock on which the UPA government sits in New Delhi,” Rangarajan said wrapping the debate.
SMS poll results: Is Ram Sethu an irrelevant issue down south?
Yes: 21 per cent
No 79 per cent
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