Karat supports Sethusamudram project, slams RSS
Left parties on Friday came out in support of Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi on the Ram Sethu issue and said the project should not be stopped in the wake of the political controversy.
By TNN |
CHENNAI/NEW DELHI: Left parties on Friday came out in support of Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi on the Ram Sethu issue and said the project should not be stopped in the wake of the political controversy.
But the AICC cited that the matter is now sub judice and that nobody had the authority to act on it till the court settled the case. But the Congress and the Left joined hands in countering the BJP campaign by saying it was the Vajpayee government that had sanctioned the very project.
Unlike the Congress, which does not de-link its secular concept from the democratic individual matters of religion and faith, the CPM, expectedly, went all-out in backing Mr Karunandhi’s ongoing verbal duel with the BJP over the concept of Lord Ram and accused the RSS leaders of communalising the entire issue.
“Ram Sethu is only a natural formation, CPM general secretary Prakash Karat said in Chennai, adding “we non-believers are entitled to have our own opinion as believers have and there is nothing wrong in expressing it... It is not proper to stop a major scheme in the name of Rama Sethu”.
When questioned on a possible change of alignment, he said it was not a question of alignment. “It was the BJP which sanctioned the project and they were trying to gain political mileage out of it,” he said. But he asserted that BJP would not be able to gain political mileage from the issue as “they tried to exploit religious sentiments during the assembly elections in UP and failed”.
In Thiruvanathapuram, CPI leader D Raja echoed same sentiments and said the Sangh Parivar was trying to sabotage national development by whipping up communal passions over the issue.
With the Centre already withdrawing the controversial affidavit and signalling a go-slow and a re-look on the Ram Sethu project cite, the AICC was understandably cautious on questions on Mr Karat’s push for the project. “As you know the matter is now sub-judice and therefore nobody has the authority to act on till it is settled legally”, said Congress spokesman Mr Abhishek Singhvi.
But he was quick to counter the BJP campaign, by citing how the ministers belonging to the BJP in the erstwhile NDA regime had okayed the project and the canal route fir it.
But the AICC cited that the matter is now sub judice and that nobody had the authority to act on it till the court settled the case. But the Congress and the Left joined hands in countering the BJP campaign by saying it was the Vajpayee government that had sanctioned the very project.
Unlike the Congress, which does not de-link its secular concept from the democratic individual matters of religion and faith, the CPM, expectedly, went all-out in backing Mr Karunandhi’s ongoing verbal duel with the BJP over the concept of Lord Ram and accused the RSS leaders of communalising the entire issue.
“Ram Sethu is only a natural formation, CPM general secretary Prakash Karat said in Chennai, adding “we non-believers are entitled to have our own opinion as believers have and there is nothing wrong in expressing it... It is not proper to stop a major scheme in the name of Rama Sethu”.
When questioned on a possible change of alignment, he said it was not a question of alignment. “It was the BJP which sanctioned the project and they were trying to gain political mileage out of it,” he said. But he asserted that BJP would not be able to gain political mileage from the issue as “they tried to exploit religious sentiments during the assembly elections in UP and failed”.
In Thiruvanathapuram, CPI leader D Raja echoed same sentiments and said the Sangh Parivar was trying to sabotage national development by whipping up communal passions over the issue.
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With the Centre already withdrawing the controversial affidavit and signalling a go-slow and a re-look on the Ram Sethu project cite, the AICC was understandably cautious on questions on Mr Karat’s push for the project. “As you know the matter is now sub-judice and therefore nobody has the authority to act on till it is settled legally”, said Congress spokesman Mr Abhishek Singhvi.
But he was quick to counter the BJP campaign, by citing how the ministers belonging to the BJP in the erstwhile NDA regime had okayed the project and the canal route fir it.
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