'I will resign if Ram Sethu's existence is proved'

Madurai, May 21: Throwing the gauntlet at the BJP, Union Shipping Minister T R Baalu today announced he will resign if the existence of Ram Sethu, a mythical bridge connecting Sri Lanka from the mainland, is proved.

''I am ready to resign if anyone could prove the NASA website, showing satellite images of the Adam's Bridge, has any evidence about the mythical Ram Sethu,'' he told mediapersons here.

Stating work on the Sethu-Samudram Shipping Channel Project (SSCP) was progressing as per schedule, he said six dredging vessels had been pressed into service and about 15 million cubic feet dredged so far, he added.

On the charge of Hindu Mutt heads from the north that the Ministry had scuttled their attempts to visit the 'Ram Sethu,' he said they could not be taken there since the sea was rough, making travel into the deep waters very difficult.

Moreover, no risk could be taken on the lives of the mutt heads, it was pointed out.

Describing the BJP's campaign on Ram Sethu as misplaced, he asked if the BJP, heading the previous NDA Government, was so confident of the mythical bridge why it had not taken any steps to rechristen Adam's Bridge, the sandy shoals between Dhanushkodi and Talaimannar in northern Sri Lanka.

Further, it was pointed out that the present alignment, which was being sought to be changed, was cleared by the NDA Government.

The Minister also expressed surprise at the campaign being spearheaded after all these years, stoutly denying the existence of a man-made structure in that area.

Even the extensive study carried out by the Geological Survey of India (GSI), when Ms Uma Bharti was the Union Mines and Geology Minister, had exposed the hallowness of the claim over the mythical bridge, he observed.

According to the study, for which boreholes up to 250 mt were dug up, the soil was only five to seven lakh years old whereas the Ramayana states that Rama's reign was 17-lakh-years-old.

UNI

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