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Journalism of Courage
Only time will tell whether the Ram Sethu issue has enough potential to help the cause of the BJP. But, in Madhya Pradesh it will have to share the emotional pie with the Bharatiya Janshakti (BJ), floated by Uma Bharati in 2006.
The sadhvi wasted no time to declare that the BJP had no credibility to take up the issue because it never built the Ram Temple and conveniently forgot about Ayodhya after coming to power. When the BJP came under fire for going back to Ram every now and then without having built a temple at Ayodhya, senior leader Murli Manohar Joshi did a somersault saying his party never offered to build a Ram Temple. It only promised help to the Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas, he said. This time, too, the party said it was letting Rameswaram Ram Sethu Protection Committee handle the movement.
To be fair to Bharati, she took up the cause of Ram Sethu much before the ASI affidavit brought her former party in the frame. She had led a procession from Rameswaram much before the BJP woke up to the issue. According to her, had the BJP not joined the campaign the project would have stopped.
Though, both the BJP and the BJ claim they will not make Ram Sethu a poll issue, on Tuesday, the BJP organised dharnas at every district headquarter to protest against the project. Recently, the BJP Government also extended unofficial support to the VHP’s three-hour roadblock with police personnel setting up barricades to stop the flow of traffic. Even Bharati extended her moral support to the roadblock. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan unveiled the state’s “Ram Agenda” under which several programmes will be organised to keep up the momentum.
Meanwhile, the MP Government and its archaeologists are busy tracing the route Lord Rama took on his way to exile and come up with a Ram Path.
