Moreover, the committee leaves the question of the structure being a cultural corridor between India and Sri Lanka an open-ended one which many feel contradicts the final conclusion. “The possibility of it being used as a cultural corridor between India and Sri Lanka cannot be precluded,” states the report.

The consensus, therefore, in the Congress leadership is to first carry out a detailed archaeological and geological study of the structure before arriving at any conclusion. The committee, sources said, focuses largely on rebutting the petitions from various quarters that argue in favour of the structure being the Ram Sethu as described in Ramayana.

What has annoyed the Congress leadership is the committee’s needless qualification about the epic. It was the same mistake that started this controversy. In an affidavit filed before the Supreme Court in September last year (withdrawn later following a major uproar), the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) had stated: “...contents of the Valmiki Ramayana, the Ramcharitmanas by Tulsidas and other mythological texts, which admittedly form an important part of ancient Indian literature...cannot be said to be historical record to incontrovertibly prove the existence of the characters, or the occurrence of events, depicted therein.”

The BJP and Hindutva organizations came out strongly against this, holding protests across the country. The Supreme Court then asked the government to examine the diverse views filed by way of different petitions and come up with a report on the nature of the structure, its historical relevance and other related aspects.

... contd.