Gone are the days when religion dominated politics and temporal head was considered as subservient to religious head in the western countries and now there is a clear-cut demarcation between the two and one head will not interfere in the affairs of the other.
But in India, notwithstanding being secular, it is an irony, still some politicians thoroughly exploits the religious sentiments of the common people to their political advantage, run their political parties using religion as a weapon, now and then tapping the religious sentiments of the people to their political advantage. Though other political parties brand them as communal, so far no attempt has been made to ban such parties but try to outwit them only through electoral battle.
Sethusamudram project was mainly initiated by the Tamil Nadu Government, to avoid a circuitous route of more than thousand nautical miles and to provide a shortcut route for commercial ships, thereby facilitating trade and commerce. The present project which was under execution was approved in its present form by the then BJP Government in the year 1999.But half way down its execution they had come up with a ploy to stall the project in the name of religion.
Mr.Subramania Samy, a seasoned politician, all in all i.e he is the president, member and the General Secretary of his own party called Janata party and he used to act as agent for other parties which seek his invaluable service to scuttle any project.
At the instance of BJP, Subramaniam Samy filed a petition in the Chennai High Court and it has come up to Supreme Court with a prayer to save the Ramar Sethu Bridge, a sand dune, allegedly built by Lord Rama in the Ramayana days to cross over to Sri Lanka.Dr.Samy’s contention is that the present Sethusamudram project if carried out and completed in the present site will destroy the Ramar Sethu Bridge, affecting the sentiments of the people who belong to Hindu religion, and which is a historical monument and so has to be saved for posterity.
The Supreme Court of India Bench, headed by the Chief Justice K.G.Balakrishnan, Justice.Raveendran and another, posed two questions, whether there exists any Ramar Sethu Bridge and it needs to be preserved and whether the Central Government can execute the project without dismantling the Ramar Sethu bridge.
Therefore, the Supreme Court has directed the Central Government to confirm through the ASI, whether Ramar Sethu Bridge is a Historical monument and it needs to be preserved and to explore the possibility of completing the Sethusamudram Project, in the alternate route, without disturbing the Ramarsethu Bridge and and without affecting the religious sentiments of the Hindus.
The Supreme Court has given time to comply with the above directions upto July, 2008, during which the further hearing of the above matter has been posted.
Thus Sethusamudram Project has become one of the main electoral planks for the BJP for the next Lok Sabha elections which is due in 2009.
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