India stalls ‘blasphemous’ sea lane project

NEW DELHI: India’s government said Friday it was putting on hold its bid to dredge a crucial shipping lane after being accused of blasphemy by Hindu activists who argue the project will damage a sacred site.

The government denied the existence of a Hindu god to justify the project, which involves building a channel to enable ships to navigate the southern tip of India instead of skirting around Sri Lanka. Hindus believe a string of islands linking India and Sri Lanka, known as Adam’s Bridge, was made by an army of monkeys to help the warrior god Ram rescue his kidnapped wife.

With the authorities under fire for allegedly insulting Hindus, government lawyers went to the Supreme Court – which is examining the project – to ask for a three–month delay in legal proceedings to consider its case. “The central government has total respect for all religions, and Hinduism in particular, in the context of the present case,” Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium told the Supreme Court in a hearing on Friday.

The move to shelve the plan was, he said, because the government wanted to “bring society together rather than cause any disruption.” The shipping lane project – dubbed India’s Suez Canal – would cut the sea journey between the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal by more than 30 hours. The controversy has sparked nationwide protests, with tensions mounting after it emerged this week that the Archeological Survey of India – acting on behalf of the government – told the Supreme Court there was “no tangible material evidence” to prove Ram and his simians existed. The leader of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Lal Krishna Advani, said the government was “blasphemous and arrogant.”

Senior BJP officials also demanded an apology from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, a Sikh, and Italian–born Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi, a Catholic. Environmentalists have also criticised the project, saying that the required dredging of the sea bed will destroy an area of rich marine life.

Source: Daily Times