A Burning of Bridges

A Burning of Bridges…..

Rama Sethu, or as I would prefer to call it, the Ram Setu (I love the great North South Lingo divide)

.... and then the army of monkeys wrote the name of Lord Ram on the stones and lo and behold, the stones were floating in the sea. Stone by stone, with a prayer on their lips, humility in their hearts and the name of God on the stone, the monkeys created a bridge to Lanka. On this bridge, the mighty army of the righteous that Bhagwan Ram himself led, crossed over to Lanka..... and the rest is history... or is it !!

Who would've thought that a collection of sand banks would be so controversial?

Faith and facts have always been at odds with each other. When one believes in something, scientific evidence is not needed nor asked for. And rightfully so - for there are some facts of life, which even though cannot be proven, give hope to billions. Take the concept of God as an example. No one asks for proof, but everyone believes.

However, one thing is for certain. Faith sometimes blinds people to such a large extent that people are willing to paralyse cities and nations for their beliefs (or lack thereof).

The Vishva Hindu Parishad has been a right wing fundamentalist organisation since it's inception. There's nothing wrong with having a Hindu right wing organisation. India is a secular democracy. Everyone has an equal right to be stupid irrespective of their race, religion, gender or IQ.

The VHP and certain other organisations have always been fighting (literally) for the rights of Hindus in India - often by destroying mosques, killing people of the Islamic faith or by organising Bandhs (bring a city to a halt). As with any other right wing organisation in a third world country, they have many supporters. So when they recently gave the call to paralyse a few cities for a few hours, it worked exceptionally well. The simple reason for the bandh was an interesting project of the Indian Government called the Sethu Samudram project. The project is to build a sea link or a sethu (bridge) across the ocean (samudram).

The Sethu Samudram project is a dredging project aiming to have an Asian Suez/Panama Canal - in the sea. It will be a 44 KM long, 15mtr deep channel. The sea around Adam’s Bridge/Rama Sethu is too shallow for ships. The Rs 2,427-crore dredging project will allow ships to sail between the east and west coasts of India without having to circumvent Sri Lanka, saving 780km and up to 30 hours of sailing time. It will also save 10 hours for other Asian shipping.

Naturally, the international shipping that passes through this lane would pay a decent amount of money to the operators of the channel (the Indian Govt) to be able to use the channel. This cut in the transit/shipping time will also mean less fuel consumed. Most ships run on diesel, which means less consumption of diesel and therefore less pollution. This route will also become an important transit point for all the fuel going from the Middle East to China and Japan. Having such a route within Indian control will mean that our voice will be heard a slight bit better by our Chinese 'brothers' especially when we talk Arunachal Pradesh.

However, all these arguments mean nothing when confronted with faith. Hindus (and more importantly the VHP) believe in what Valmiki wrote all those many thousand years ago - that stones floated and a bridge was built. The fact that the Ramayana is a part of Hindu MYTHOLOGY is conveniently forgotten. This has now been taken as Hindu History. The existence of the sand banks, called the Rama Sethu or Adam's Bridge, has always been known to Indians, Sri Lankan and other sea faring peoples. There has never been a controversy till some time back.

The modern day story started when the RSS was approached by 'Dr' Puneet Taneja, a scientist from ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) who gave them 'confidential' information that NASA (The American National Aeronautical and Space Agency) had determined using their 'Spy' Satellites that the sand banks between India and Sri Lanka were actually man-made and were thousands of years old. Wham!!

The VHP had been largely quiet in terms of what it had managed to achieve since the post Godhra violence. Now, it had in it's hands, another potentially explosive issue - backed by scientists from NASA and ISRO - no less. It did not matter that the the ISRO 'scientist' turned out to be fake and has since disappeared, and it did not matter that NASA vehemently denied ever having said that the bridge was man-made (or otherwise). It does not matter that no archeological evidence has ever been found that explains the sand banks. (There is plenty of geological evidence of it being a natural phenomenon)

NASA Denial : "Remote sensing images or photographs from orbit cannot provide direct information about the origin or age of a chain of islands, and certainly cannot determine whether humans were involved in producing any of the patterns seen," NASA official Mark Hess.

Now that the VHP had in it's hand 'FACTS' from NASA and ISRO, the campaign began. It started off as articles in their newspapers and emails with Satellite images of Rama-Sethu mentioning that it was a proven fact that the Sethu was man-made. So, when the Government plans for the 'Sethu Samudram' came out into the open, the VHP had a ready device to challenge the project.

An example of a website proclaiming the truth : http://www.indolink.com/Religion/r091702-130924.php

The project in itself is not a new concept. It was first conceived about 150 years ago by British planners. Commission after commission found one reason or the other to not go ahead with it, till the present government rushed ahead to clear the project.

Now, the VHP claims that since the sand bank is the very same bridge built all those millennia ago built the army led by Bhagwan Ram therefore, any dredging is tantamount to the destruction of a monument of immense importance to the Hindus. The VHP are opposed to the bridge on religious grounds. The Government of India and of the State of Tamil Nadu want this project to go ahead without any delay.

Actually, there's a little more than that to it. There's also the small matter of Sri Lanka, the LTTE and the Tamils in Jaffna and the useless traitors amongst the politicians in Tamil Nadu.

Now, we have all been aware that the Sinhalese Sri Lankans have been horrible to the Tamil population in the north. In fact, we were so unhappy with this, that in the 70s, we taught good ol' Velupillai Prabhakaran and his motley crew of merry men to stand up for themselves. You know, standard sort of training - guns, bombs, guerilla warfare - that kind of stuff....

In fact, they were so successful that the IPKF had to go to Sri Lanka to 'politely' tell them to forget the training they had recieved. In retaliation, the LTTE blew up an ex-Prime Minister of India - Rajiv Gandhi (among others). That was the end of the Indian relationship with the LTTE. The Sinhalese are still being nasty to the Tamils and that is wrong - but certain Tamil politicians like the Union Shipping Minister T R Baalu are constantly trying to derail Indian relations with Sri Lanka on that basis, and are collecting funds for the LTTE despite it being listed as a terrorist organisation. It never occurs to them that interfering in internal matters of other nations is not only a mistake, but also wrong. Otherwise, Pakistan is fully justified in spreading terrorism in India.

Sri Lanka wanted the 'Hanuman Bridge' project, a Rs 4000 crores project. A six way track for rail and road traffic running a distance of 29.2 kilometers between Thalaimannar and Dhanushkodi which will be connected by this bridge, will dwarf the 23 kilometer sea bridge connecting Sweden and Denmark. This means that goods can exchanged between India and Sri Lanka easily and cheaply which will boost the economies of Tamil Nadu and Jaffna (where the Tamils stay)

Sri Lanka is a bit worried about this dredging project. They are worried about the potential ecological impact. Projects in the sub-continent normally do not care much for the environment if the project is of strategic importance. The dredging and the traffic will most likely affect marine life. It is also possible that this might cause other problems with new ocean currents being generated. They are also worried about the potential loss to their fishermen.

While it was the BJP-led coalition that sat on the proposal from Colombo to build a rail and road links between Dhanushkodi in Tamil Nadu and Thalaimannar in Sri Lanka. The Congress-led coalition has now gone one step further by rushing to clear the Sethusamudram project. Both decisions were shaped by Chennai. As India allows Tamil Nadu politicians to exercise a veto over its Sri Lanka policy and squanders the opportunities for enhanced strategic cooperation with Colombo, China is stepping in by drawing Sri Lanka to the centre of its maritime strategy in the Indian Ocean. China is helping Sri Lanka to build a new port and putting up money for the construction of a bunkering facility and oil tank farms.

If Sri Lanka was looking at cooperative prosperity with India through sub-regional economic integration, Delhi has chosen to protect the parochial interests of Tamil Nadu. Unlike Bangladesh, which has not stopped protesting the controversial Indian river-linking project and Pakistan, which has whipped up concerns about Indian dam building in Kashmir, Sri Lanka has chosen to avoid a public spat with India on the Sethusamudram project. Instead of building bridges with Sri Lanka, we are digging a divide.

And jumping headlong into this slimy slurry - we now have the VHP. Close your eyes and picture a wrestling match Las Vegas style "... and frrom the right winng, at THOUsands of murrrderrrrs, DEMolished mosques, we have (loud music) - the rrrrrumbling, the crrrrrrazy - Veeeee Ech Peeeeeeee "

Whether the dredged channel is important or the bridge is important - that is an issue which needs to be bilaterally discussed by India and Sri Lanka. While a reduction in the time taken by shipping from either coasts of India by 24 hours is a massive improvement, improving relations with Sri Lanka will ensure that the Tamil problems there can be resolved in a better manner. Discussing with Sri Lanka as an equal partner will also ensure that we won't lose our neighbour to the Chinese sphere of influence. Our foreign policies have been held hostage far too long by the blinkered id*ots in power in Tamil Nadu.

Incidentally, the LTTE have a lot to gain from this channel. Now, some of their shipments of weapons won't have to go all around Sri Lanka to reach the Jaffna peninsula. A statement released by Subramaniam Swamy, Janata Party - "Mr.Baalu has now only the support of the banned outfit, the terrorist LTTE, which outfit has long sought the canal to ferry illicit guns and narcotics traffic between Kanya Kumar and Chennai port via Jaffna island. At present Rama Setu is in the way, and this illicit traffic has to go around Sri Lankan island, which is risky."

There is absolutely zero archeological evidence to support the theory that the sand banks are man (or monkey) made. These banks are a natural accumulation of sand by wave action in the ocean. Moreover, during the last glaciation - 18,000 yrs ago, this entire area was actually above sea level. There is no indication that there was a civilisation between then (18000 yrs ago) and the Harappa civilisation (4000 yrs ago) that was technologically capable of building a bridge of that magnitude. This has led to the Indian Government filing an affidavit with the court that the Indian Govt. officially does not believe in the existence of Lord Ram thereby implying that the Rama Sethu is a natural phenomenon. In a country where pilgrims travel days in the Himalayan snows to pray to an ice stalagmite in Amarnath, this affidavit is proverbial shot in the proverbial foot !!

With general elections looming around the horizon, this affidavit will probably prove to a big mistake for the Congress party. If the BJP chooses to (and it just might), it can make this an election issue. With the controversial 123 agreement already causing problems for the governing coalition from within, the last thing India needs is an affidavit denying the existence of an important figure in Hinduism - because of the potential law and order problems that it might cause. If the 123 agreement is causing problems for the coalition within, this affidavit has the potential to cause problems from whoever is not 'within'.

Already, allies from within the UPA are grumbling. Laloo Prasad has made his views clear and even the CPI has made it's views known about the affidavit that it was a hasty act and completely uncalled for.

With each disrupted minute of the Parliament costing one million rupees, with the halted traffic, loss in productivity, and vehicular damage by rioters running into tens of millions of rupees, with general elections costing hundreds of millions of rupees, with our cricket team turning out to be highly paid monkeys - when will India stand up and say enough (or prove that our cricketers built the bridge)