Protesting against demolition of the Ram Sethu bridge for the Sethusamudram Project, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) will organise a nationwide token fast on August 12.Addressing a press conference here on Sunday, International Working President of the VHP S Vedantham said the organisation would also stage a “Rameswaram Chalo” agitation on August 26 and take a pledge to make sacrifices, in order to protect the bridge.Reacting to the recent reports attributed to NASA, the American space agency, that the bridge was not man-made, he said the agency had clarified the news in response to an e-mail from the outfit. Sources at NASA had confirmed that their information was based solely on the astro-photography dataset, which did not provide details about the age, sub-surface structure or the composition of islands in the Palk Straits.Vedantham pointed out that in their reply, it was stated: “To interpret our response as if it is a scientifically rigorous conclusion as to the nature of the Palk Strait islands is both misinterpretation and misreporting and thus inappropriate.”Apart from religious sentiments, there was also a danger of losing precious thorium deposits in Tamil Nadu, the regions of Aluva and Chavara in Kerala, and Chatrapura in Orissa, due to the construction of the channel, he added.There were about 3.64 lakh tonnes of thorium deposits in these places, which could be washed off into international waters or submerged in the ocean in the event of a tsunami, claimed Vedantham.“We suspect an international conspiracy to prevent India from becoming a nuclear power as the thorium deposits will meet the country’s requirement for the next 400 years,” Vedantham said.
