Running a coalition government is thorny. With fragile vote tallies, allies need to be continually placated. In the Indian context, an irony that doesn’t escape our attention is parties with least numbers seem to garner the maximum benefits. The DMK with just 16 seats is the ally that the Congress has tried to appease by issuing the (now backtracked) damaging ASI statement on Rama .
The issue lends itself more clarity when we examine its more recent political antecedents. The proposal to build the bridge was first mooted in 1860 but seems to have assumed a sudden urgency in the last two or so years.
…the SSCP was the mascot for the DMK and other political parties in the state, both for the Lok Sabha election and the May 2006 Assembly election. While the DMK had promised voters that it would ensure that the project would be launched if it had a say in the Centre in the Lok Sabha election, in the state election last year, the party gloated the SSCP achievement as its own…. “This is the time the CM has to be careful. No one can prevent Sethusamudram project from happening….” said a senior DMK leader in Tamil Nadu.
The opposition to the project spin mainly around historical, economic, and environmental reasons. The government’s argument in its favour centers around just a single point: a perceived future economic boost resulting from it. One would expect more from anybody who wants to invest an overwhelming 2600 crores. This report says the project’s official Web site gives next to no information.
The government also has no response to commonsense queries like this.
In a letter to the editor of The Hindu, Commander (retd.) GVK Unnithan claimed that “..if the charges are pegged lower than the fuel costs (to round Sri Lanka), the break-even period of 25 years will prolong to a century!”. (He also questioned its military utility, contending that the canal will not be of much use during hostilities for fear of hostile submarine activities.) The good commander’s points demand closer attention.
The UPA been unable to convince the anti-Sethusamudram groups on any count. Its assurances and denials and justifications have only made matters worse. It claimed that the Ram Sethu was a natural formation based on a statement issued by NASA. But NASA has denied making the statement.
A National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) spokesman says the agency has made no official statement over the origins of the Adams Bridge, a coral walkway between Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka slated for dredging to shorten shipping routes….But now the Nasa is clarifying that the astronaut photographs used to bolster the government’s opinion…could not be taken as scientific opinion. In an email to Mint, Nasa public affairs officer Michael Braukus wrote: “Apparently, a response provided by Nasa employees at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) regarding a photograph of Adams Bridge, which was taken by astronauts in space, was mistakenly interpreted as an official Nasa statement about Adams Bridge. No Nasa official statement has been made. Nasa has no official statement or position regarding Adams Bridge.”
Understandably, the UPA invoked the NASA-support bit to fend off the VHP’s angst against destroying India’s heritage. However, with NASA’s denial, even this move has badly backfired.
The same report also discloses other happenings on the project that can only be termed murky.
The revelation is the latest in a series of confusing moves surrounding the future of the bridge, also known as Ram Sethu. Last week, Sethusamudram Corp. Ltd managing director N.K. Raghupathy was sent on leave, replaced by an interim director. With their website down and phone lines disconnected last week, staff members said they didn’t know if the Rs2,427 crore project would continue. As of Sunday night, both the site and the phone lines were back up. The website did not appear to have been updated, with Raghupathy still listed as the head of the project, and a progress report saying dredging was almost one-fifth completed….Raghupathy’s mobile phone was switched off, so attempts to reach him were unsuccessful. Shipping minister T.R. Ballu did not return repeated calls and visits for comment.
The government, which plans to use substantial public money for an ambitious project is morally bound to be transparent in making the details public. Instead it has ducked, and misled at every turn. The picture that emerges is one of the UPA desperately trying to counter opposition using any device that it finds at that moment. If its homework was impeccable, blunders like the NASA-backfire or even the albatross-like affidavit wouldn’t have occurred.
Nothing is going right for the Sethusamudram project. Why the hurry despite this?
The UPA never showed any great interest in Sethusamudram ever since it came to power. It just played along to keep the DMK happy. Recall that the DMK threw fits of displeasure during the initial days the UPA came to power. Back then, the Congress had promptly pacified it by making Baalu the shipping minister. The significance of that move is highly relevant now. Some of the “cultural opponents” of the DMK have damned the Sethusamudram project calling it Karunanidhi’s (yet another) assault on Hinduism. Perhaps it is. But Dravidianism or any other ideology have no place in current Indian politics even as humour. The same rule applies cutting across all parties: while in power, grab as much as you can.
With the prospect of mid-term polls very real, the DMK is anxious to get the Sethusamudram project moving. And its impatience shows .
The ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu is quietly seething over the Centre’s decision to withdraw its affidavits on the Sethusamudram project and seek three months to examine the issue of dredging near the controversial Adam’s Bridge. (Indian Express )
DMK president and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi on Saturday cautioned the Centre against paying heed to the “religious fundamentalist forces” on the Ram Sethu issue.
The Centre should not make any attempt to give up the Sethusamudram Ship Channel Project, bowing to pressure from such forces, Karunanidhi told reporters… (Sify )
Ultimately, the whole project is not about Rama or Sethu or Ramayana. It is the moolah to be made that propels the DMK. Or the real possibility of its loss if “snap polls” are announced…
Postscript: In a development completely unrelated to the DMK, two officials of the Archaeological Survey of India were axed.
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[...] I guess the Congress party cares about Hindu voters only when elections are near. Or perhaps they have learnt from decades-long minority appeasement that led to Ayodhya 1992. Or perhaps again, they are confident that substantial Hindu voters would buy this we-too-care-for-Hindus bluff. Yet, the realization is a little late especially after the affidavit bungling and the almost-everyday minority-appeasement that it does. I’m tempted to think up a tagline/motto for the UPA: Minority appeasement is Governance. That adequately sums up its record of governance in four years. [...]
[...] I guess the Congress party cares about Hindu voters only when elections are near. Or perhaps they have learnt from decades-long minority appeasement that led to Ayodhya 1992. Or perhaps again, they are confident that substantial Hindu voters would buy this we-too-care-for-Hindus bluff. Yet, the realization is a little late especially after the affidavit bungling and the almost-everyday minority-appeasement that it does. [...]