Rameswaram, April 18, 2007—“Ram Mandir Banayenge!” “Ram Sethu Bachayenge !!” That was the slogan which reverberated at the land’s end this afternoon. In the middle of the holiest pilgrim centre of Rameswaram, Shri Ashok Singhal, International President of Vishwa Hindu Parishad, led the slogan and a huge assembly of thousands of demonstrators – 60 per cent of them women—followed the chant, waving saffron flags. They had assembled there in response to a call of ‘Rameswaram Ram Sethu Protection Movement’.

May 13 Alert : The Ultimatum Shri Singhal electrified the atmosphere by declaring an ultimatum. In his special address to the demonstrators—in fact, to the whole of Bharat—he roared: “The Central government should leave Ram Sethu untouched and come forward with an alternative alignment for the Sethusamudram Shipping Canal before May 13, 2007. If it fails to do so, a very very big struggle will follow. On that day, mahamandaleshwars and heads of akhadas will meet in Delhi to chalk out the further strategy. I have consulted them all in this regard. Members of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha must come out in support of this mighty struggle to protect Hindu interests.”

Shri Singhal asserted that Shri Hanuman himself protects Ram Janmasthan as proved by the fact that of the 19 bombs hurled by anti-nationals on Ramjanmabhoomi, only one exploded, that too just destroyed the hand of the terrorist involved. He quizzed: “So also, Ram Sethu too is protected by Hanumanji. Otherwise, how does one explain dredgers, cranes and ships approaching Ram Sethu break down one by one? (Latest: The engineer of a Russian ship working for Sethusamudram Project broke his hand and has since been hospitalised in Madurai. His condition is kept as a guarded secret!). But Shri. Singhal was prompt in reminding the people that they will have to convey their anger to the Hon’ble President of Bharat and the Prime Minister through telegrams and letters. Midway during his speech, he asked those in the meeting who would write letters the very next day to raise their hands. All hands went up! Anger? Yes!

He explained: “Ram Sethu is the sole surviving solid proof that Shri Ram lived in this land, that he came to Rameswaram and constructed the Sethu. Western powers want to destroy the Sethu just because of this. Their historians want to hide the fact from the people that Shri Ram took birth thousands of years before Jesus Christ, as that would demolish their theory that Bharat did never have a long and glorious history. It is not a coincidence that Sonia participated in the inauguration of the Sethu-samudram Project in its present form that seeks to destroy the Ram Sethu and Ambika Soni declares that there is no Ram Sethu at all.” “It is due to the pressure from USA which made Sonia to inaugurate the Project to make the Palk Strait as international waters to help the American government.” Shri Singhal told mediapersons in Chennai on April 17. The British taught us distorted history and never recognised Lord Ram as a historical figure and those who want to destroy the bridge are those against Shri Ram, he said. Any deshabhakta will be angry for this, he concluded. The work on the Project be suspended immediately. VHP and the religious leaders are not against the Project per se.

Earlier in his address, Shri Singhal reiterated quite a few aspects of Ram Sethu protection, brought to the notice of people and the government in several hundreds of similar protest demonstrations from Punjab to Kerala through UP and Andhra—and, of course, in every district place of Tamil Nadu all along past months.

‘If Ram Sethu is demolished then it would destroy thorium, the fuel source for nuclear energy generation, large deposits running into tens of thousands of tons of which are found in the place. It can supply energy for the whole country for more than 100 years; it has to be saved for making Bharat a self-reliant nuclear power and as it is one of our top national imperatives.

In addition to the NASA images, our own scientific evidences point to human activity in ancient times on both sides of Ram Sethu as found by Dept. of Earth Sciences and ocean technologists of Bharat.

VHP and the religious leaders are not against the Project per se; they are opposed to the present alignment that involved damaging the Ram Sethu. There were five alternatives and the VHP and the Hindu Dharma Acharya Sabha wanted the government to choose one of them.

The Rameswaram demonstration was held in the presence of Shri R.V.S. Marimuthu (Sanghachalak of Tamil Nadu, RSS).

Blessing the people fighting for the protection of Ram Sethu, Mahamandaleshwar Swami Vishveshananda of Haridwar, sent out a warning that the family of anyone who destroys Ram Sethu will face disaster.

In Ramajanmabhoomi movement, Hindus were pitted against Muslim intransigence; but in saving Ram Sethu, all fishermen—Muslims, Christians and Hindus—have come together, the Swami pointed out. It may be remembered that 140 associations of Rameswaram had joined the Ram Sethu Protection Movement.

Swami Paramatmananda of Rajkot made it clear that destruction of Ram Sethu does not merely indicate economic or political loss. It means a cultural, religious destruction, he said. He called upon people to hit the streets as the government has become deaf to the demands of Hindus. Raise your voice if you want to be heard, he appealed.

He exposed the Shipping Minister T.R. Baalu’s trickery in not giving an explanation to the Hindu leaders even after the lapse of three weeks after Prime Minister’s directive to that effect. The PM had asked Baalu to respond to the delegation of religious leaders when they had met him in Delhi to demand protection of Ram Sethu.

Highlighting the sentiments of the Hindu mind, Swami Abhimukhananda of Dwaraka said the Ram Sethu is like the maang (the parting of hair above the forehead) of Bharat Mata and destroying it would amount to making the Mother look like a widow. Shri Ram appealed to Samudra Raja to no avail; only when Ram tried to take out his bow and arrow, work on the Sethu could begin; like that, Hindu appeals have fallen on deaf ears. Struggle seems to be the only way, the Swami said.

Swami Sahaja Chaitanya also participated in the demonstration.

Shri Rama Gopalan, founder, Hindu Munnani, pointed out that people should be ready to lay down even their lives in order to bring the powers that be, to their knees and thus save Ram Sethu. He cited the Nandigram experience as precedence to this; there, the Marxist government backtracked from land acquisition only after people laid down their lives to realise their demand.

Shri S. Vedantam, international vice president of VHP, wanted the questionable background of Minister T.R. Baalu be brought to focus. He recalled how Baalu had declared that he was ashamed of calling himself a Hindu – that too at a convention of Christians some months back. (The Minister has proved last week that he can be repeatedly wayward: “There is no man-made structure in the area where Sethusamudram Ship Channel Project (SSCP) works are going on”, said T.R. Baalu in Ramanathapuram on April 16 while speaking to reporters. There is no need for any change in the alignment of the project, he added). So, battle lines are drawn unmistakably.

In his address, Shri R.S. Narayanaswami, journalist and vice president of VHP, Tamil Nadu, traced history of the failure of the Canal Project for over a century.

Dr. Subramaniam Swamy of Janata Party referred to the ancientness of monuments. He said structures like Taj Mahal in Agra and Qutub Minar in Delhi were saved from the threat of damage and destruction from the modern development-oriented initiatives due to public and judicial intervention. While the above two date back only to a few hundred years, the Ram Sethu’s historical antiquity goes back to several millennia, he compared.

Shri. L. Ganesan, state BJP president, alleged that the persistence with the unwise alignment of Sethusamudram Canal is aimed at perpetuating vote bank and corruption (which he described as ‘note bank’). He said nobody has the authority to question one's belief. Likewise, nobody can question the belief of Hindus—now scientifically proved—that Ram Sethu was built by Shri Ram and so it is worship worthy.

Shri Kuppuramu, advocate and Ramanathapuram Jila Sanghachalak, RSS, presided over the demonstration. He is also the convenor of ‘Rameswaram Ramar Paalam Protection Movement’, Chennai. The movement’s website is being constantly updated with developments regarding protection of Ram Sethu. Please visit the website at – www.saveramasetu.blogspot.com

As Shri Ashok Singhal hinted, the movement seems all set to spread far and wide across the whole country soon, thanks to the the UPA apparatus out to antagonize Hindus in an unimaginative manner. The rulers are bound to encounter an organised bitter resistance of Hindus this time.