The framework of pre-poll alliances in the South sharpened further as the Ram Sethu controversy between the BJP and the DMK reached a flashpoint on Thursday with senior BJP leader LK Advani asking Tamil Nadu chief minister Karunanidhi to withdraw his controversial remarks on Lord Rama, a demand squarely rejected by the latter.
The strident position adopted by the DMK has not only pushed the BJP towards the AIADMK, but has also meant that there might not be much change in the UPA?s lineup in the South whenever the next Lok Sabha polls are held. That the Congress and the Left would not have much options except to do business with the DMK once again was apparent when the UPA and the Left came together to state that the Sethu Samudram project must go on.
The war of words between the BJP and the DMK peaked on Thursday with the Tamil Nadu chief minister refusing to withdraw his remarks. ??I have not said anything more than Valmiki, who authored Ramayana. Valmiki had even stated that Ram was a drunkard. Have I said so?” he said. I only want the (Sethu Samudram) project to be implemented at the earliest, as it would reduce the shipping expenses and develop trade. The project has been put on hold for the past one hundred years,?? he said at Chennai. He also challenged Advani for debate on Valmiki’s Ramayana. ??Is Advani ready to discuss Ramayana with me in the same platform after going through Valmiki Ramayana fully??? he asked.
The BJP leader, earlier in a press conference said: “Though Karunanidhi is an atheist, I appeal to him to withdraw his remarks. Atheists in America and other countries do not wound religious sentiments. Can such remarks be made against Jesus Christ in countries, where Christians are in majority or against Prophet Mohammed where Muslims are in majority,”
Meanwhile, the CPI(M) said that the BJP was trying to communalise the issue for political benefit and maintained that it could be scientifically proved how the land mass was formed. “Seeking to communalise every issue for political benefit, the BJP takes recourse to faith to authenticate mythology as history. Faith is a matter of individual choice. A right that a democratic system will assiduously protect. What we are discussing here are not matters of faith. These are matters of historical enquiry and reality,” CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury said in an article in the forthcoming issue of People?s Democracy.
, the CPIM mouthpiece.
He also said that the government of India had correctly decided to withdraw certain parts of the affidavit by the ASI. “It is, indeed, strange that the UPA government had allowed such extraneous comments to be filed in the affidavit, in the first place.
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