Hey Ram, what a U-turn! Sethu project was BJP's baby

Prarthna Gahilote , CNN-IBN
Posted on Sep 18, 2007 at 08:47 | Updated Sep 18, 2007 at 11:49

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New Delhi: When it initiated the construction of a navigation channel cutting through Adam's Bridge, it didn't strike the BJP that it would cut through the fabled Ram Sethu, which according to the Ramayan was built by Lord Ram to pass into Lanka.

The NDA was in power and the then prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee announced the implementation of the project in 1998. The Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project was meant to be a part of NDA government's ambitious Rs-1,00,000 crore Sagar Mala programme to improve navigation around the peninsula.

The Congress – now under fire for the same project – wants the BJP to jog its memory.

“It’s hypocrisy on the BJP's side and the public will see through them. The project was conceived, initiated, planned for execution and okayed by the NDA government,” says Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi.

The Congress does have facts on its side:

• The Sethusamudram project was initiated by the NDA in 1998 with Vajpayee’s announcement.
• Rs 4 crore was allocated in the 1999 Budget itself.
• In 2002, the then finance minister Yashwant Sinha told the Lok Sabha that the project was of high national importance.
• In 2004, Vajpayee called it a “cherished dream” of the people of Tamil Nadu.
• The DMK was then an NDA allay and had welcomed the project.

Only the NDA has now forgotten that.

Some elements within the BJP are tempering the opposition with a realignment proposal. “We are not against the project. We want it realligned. Why should the sethu be destroyed for it?'' says BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad.

Politics is the art of the probable and perhaps convenience. Little wonder then that details like who initiated a project and who took it further matter little to political players.

What matters is how far your vote bank grows.

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