Chennai: DMK president M Karunanidhi on Monday
slammed archrival AIADMK supremo and Chief Minister
Jayalalithaa for demanding national monument status for Rama
Setu, saying her party had for long pitched for its
implementation for the state`s development.
"We (DMK) are not against (Lord) Ram as is being made out.
We are asking why do you oppose demolition of a non-existent
bridge," he said referring to Rama Setu or Adam`s Bridge.
He said DMK founder and Dravidian veteran, the late CN
Annadurai had pitched for the project in 1967 as then Chief
Minister. "But Aryan forces are trying to demolish his
dreams," he said in a statement.
Slamming those opposed to the project, he likened them to
the anti-nuclear agitators at Kudankulam, asking why they were
protesting a long time after the project had begun.
The DMK leader, whose party MPs recently called on Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi,
calling for early implementation of the project, said people
of the state should identify those who were playing spoilsport
to the project under "fictitious reasons."
He recalled that AIADMK in its election manifestos for 2001
Assembly polls and 2004 Lok Sabha polls pressed for
implementing the project, but argued against it in 2009
Parliamentary polls, citing feasibility issues and religious
sentiments.
The DMK patriarch had courted controversy in the height of
the Sethusamudram controversy with his comments against Lord
Ram earning the wrath of pro-Hindu outfits.
Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy had moved the
Supreme Court against the demolition of Rama Sethu, while
Jayalalithaa had written to Prime Minister Singh last week,
insisting that the Centre declare it a national monument
considering its "archaelogical, cultural and historical
importance."
On Mar 27, the Apex Court had asked the Centre to make its
stand clear on declaring the site as a national monument.
PTI
