Author: P Venugopal
Publication: MSN News
Date: March 1, 2008
URL: http://news.in.msn.com/national/article.aspx?cp-documentid=1269364
The UPA-led government may just lose all the
popularity it purchased through the Union Budget, thanks to its muddled handling
of the sensitive Sethusamudram project off the Rameswaram coast in Tamil Nadu.
Its lawyers have submitted a fresh affidavit before the Supreme Court giving
the go-ahead to demolish the "Ram Setu" but withdrew their earlier
stance on Rama being part of mythology and not history.
What they have failed to fathom is the saffron
tsunami that could lash the coast of Tamil Nadu if the Supreme Court agreed
to the demolition of the stone bridge, purported to have been built by Lord
Rama and his Vanar-Sena (army of monkeys). For tThe BJP and its allies, already
feeling hard-done by Finance Minister P Chidambaram and his colleague Lalu
Prasad Yadav's largesse to the electorate, this could quite literally prove
to be Lord Ram's electoral gift!
The new affidavit is so cleverly worded as
to placate the DMK, the major ally of the Congress in the South, which was
cut up over the delay in going ahead with the project. But what it obviously
overlooked is the handle it could give to the sangh parivar to whip up Hindu
sentiments and exploit it for electoral gains. Much will depend on what verdict
the apex court will give when the Centre's fresh affidavit and the report
of the committee of eminent persons come up before it on March 5.
If the court rejects Centre's affidavit and
upholds the stay on the project, the DMK is certain to pull out of the UPA
and make the issue its main election plank in the next state assembly and
Lok Sabha elections.
If, on the other hand, the court clears the
project in any manner necessitating the demolition of Ram Setu, it could trigger
off massive mobilization by the Hindutva forces, a la the Ram Janmabhoomi
campaign, reaping rich electoral dividends in the process.It was the Ram Janmabhumi
campaign that catapulted the BJP from a two-member party in the Lok Sabha
to the seat of power in Delhi.
On the Ram Setu issue, the BJP can count on
the support of many organizations of environmentalists, social activists and
fishermen who have come out against the project. Several leading scientists
too have joined the BJP bandwagon by terming the project as an `environmental
disaster' on the plea that the canal digging will not only kill fish and marine
organism in the area but also upset the ecological balance, inviting disasters
like tsunami.
The Centre is thus caught in a faith versus
realpolitik cross-fire on the Ram setu issue which will generate lot of heat
in the days to come.
The Centre's affidavit reflects an undesirable
trend of modern times among central and state governments to leave all highly
contentious issues to court, thereby subjugating the elected government's
primary duty to resolve disputes through dialogue in the best democratic tradition.
If the court is to resolve all issues confronting the nation, what is the
government for?