Date:01/01/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/01/01/stories/2008010156221200.htm

National

Parties cannot decide on Sethu project: Singhvi

Special Correspondent

BJP trying to mislead nation, says Congress
“The project is the culmination of a century-old vision”

NEW DELHI: The Congress on Monday said that neither the Bharatiya Janata Party nor any other party could decide whether the Sethusamudram project should be implemented or not. “The matter is before the Supreme Court where the Central government has presented the technical facts about the project and it is for the Court to decide.”

Reacting to the BJP’s demand for shelving it, Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said by trying to hold rallies and raising slogans, the BJP was trying to mislead the nation, whereas it was the National Democratic Alliance government that pursued the project between 1999 and 2004.

Mr. Singhvi said there was no need to spell out the Congress stand because the government had placed the facts based on technical studies before the apex court.

He said the project, as formulated during the NDA government regime, was endorsed in the BJP’s election manifesto for 2004. “The BJP’s attempts to hold rallies and meetings against the project now are so crude, pathetic and ham-handed that it doesn’t fool the party itself. Are they challenging the court?”

He said when the NDA formulated the project, the BJP did not even mention the name of Ram Sethu but just passed on the orders mentioning Adam’s Bridge. He said this showed that the BJP remembered Lord Rama “only when the elections come.”

He charged the BJP with communalising and politicising the issue.

“The project has its origin as early as in 1860 and is the culmination of a century-old vision. It envisages the dredging of a limited portion of the wide channel across the Adam’s Bridge. It will affect a mere 300 metres out of the nearly 30,000 metres and therefore, the project cannot be considered an act that will demolish the entire Adam’s Bridge,” Mr. Singhvi said.