Advani slams UPA for disputing Ram's historicity

Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha LK Advani on Tuesday rang up Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to register a strong protest against the Centre's affidavit in the Supreme Court disputing the historicity of the Ram legend.

Sources said Prime Minister's Media Adviser Sanjaya Baru came on the line when Advani rang up Manmohan Singh and the BJP veteran told him that the principal Opposition party considered the content of the Central Government's affidavit, filed on Tuesday in connection with an ongoing hearing on Setu Samudran Project, "highly objectionable and uncalled for".

Advani is reported to have drawn the PMO's attention to the fact that the Union Government had gone out of the way to hurt the sentiments of crores of Hindus and denigrated their faith.

He is understood to have pointed out that the Government had disputed the historicity of the characters and events figuring in Valmiki's Ramayan and Tulsidas's Ram Charit Manas, even as it admitted that the Archeological Survey of India had not conducted any enquiry into the existence of the Ram Setu.

The move gave a clear indication that the principal opposition party intends to make the Government's deliberate campaign to hurt the sentiments of the majority community a big issue and target the Congress for its unabashed pursuit of vote bank politics.

As BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad was quick to observe the affidavit had been filed by the Union Government's Ministry of Culture, which was under senior Congress leader Ambika Soni.

"So far, we thought opposition to Ram Setu was primarily from the Union Minister for Surface Transport and Shipping TR Balu, who represents the DMK in the ruling alliance," he said.

Interestingly, Balu's Ministry had already filed an affidavit in the apex court in connection with the same case on Monday.

But that affidavit confined itself to stating that there was no scientific evidence proving that Ram Setu was a man-made bridge.

The latest affidavit filed by a Ministry under the charge of Congress leader Ambika Soni went beyond this and challenged the historicity of the characters and events in the entire gamut of the Ram pantheon itself.