NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 13: With the BJP threatening a countrywide agitation and Congress president Sonia Gandhi moving to do damage-control, the Government, after waiting a full 24 hours, admitted that it made a mistake. And decided to withdraw “objectionable” paragraphs in its affidavit in the Supreme Court which, while defending the Sethusamudram project, questioned the existence of “characters, events” in the Ramayana.

Union Law Minister H R Bhardwaj called a press conference to declare: “The government admits its mistake and wants to remove any doubt whatsoever that it does not believe in the existence of Ram. The existence of Ram cannot be doubted. As Himalaya is Himalaya, Ganga is Ganga, Ram is Ram. Ram is an integral part of our ethos and cannot be alienated from our hearts.”

He said a “wrong impression had been created in the minds of people” about the contents of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) affidavit and, therefore, a supplementary affidavit would be filed on Friday in the Supreme Court.

Bhardwaj’s announcement came a day after it became public that the ASI told the court that the Adam’s Bridge/Ram Setu formation cannot be called “a man-made structure” and that “contents of the Valmiki Ramayana, the Ramcharitamanas by Tulsidas and other mythological texts... cannot be said to be historical record to incontrovertibly prove the existence of the characters, or the occurrence of the events, depicted therein.”

The affidavit came under immediate attack from the BJP which called it “blasphemous”. BJP leader L K Advani met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Bhardwaj at a dinner last night and told them that “the highly objectionable affidavit should be withdrawn.”

While yesterday the party didn’t even get into the argument, confining its statements to the fact that the Sethusamudram project was launched under NDA rule, it was very different today. Congress sources said Sonia Gandhi started seeking views of senior party leaders this morning.

Ahmad Patel, Political Secretary to the Congress president, had presided over a meeting of AICC general secretaries last evening but they did not take up this issue. The leadership woke up only after state units began making desperate calls, seeking advice on what stand to take, even cautioning about the political damage this may cause.

Sonia Gandhi consulted the Prime Minister and senior party leaders this morning. By then the Government had dug into files to discover that ASI authorities had not cleared the controversial paragraphs. The same ideas, Congress sources pointed out, had figured in a paper on the Sethusamudram project, circulated among a section of MPs by a Ministry under a non-Congress UPA constituent.

The Congress leadership decided to issue a statement or hold a press conference to clarify how the controversial paragraphs had crept into the affidavit and how the Government could not be held responsible for it.

The Congress core group and leaders like Digvijay Singh and Mohsina Kidwai met at the PM’s residence to deliberate on the strategy to be adopted. The leaders felt that since the Law Minister was already doing damage-control, the Congress should refrain from going public on “sensitive” details as it could shift the blame on one of the UPA constituents, said sources.

“Whatever happens, but it is clear that heads are going to roll,” said sources after the meeting.

Asked at the press conference today whether the Government intended to fix responsibility for the mistake in the affidavit, Bhardwaj said he was not authorised to take any action and the Additional Solicitor General was looking into the matter.

On the Sethusamudram project, Bhardwaj said the matter would be decided on merits in court. “The Government is only saying that Ram should be kept out of this. There should be no controversy in matters of faith and religion and there is no need to politicise it,” he said.

BJP ratchets it up, Modi invokes Italy

• L K Advani: PM and Sonia Gandhi must apologise. This kind of insult... Will Congress dare to do this to any other religion?

• NARENDRA MODI: Sonia’s birth place is Italy and Ram was born in Hindustan. Then how will she know of the existence of Ram? We have full faith in Hindu religion and don’t need a certificate on the existence of Ram

• J JAYALALITHAA: Switches to BJP stand on Sethusamudram, says Centre should explore alternative schemes and implement the project without damaging the Ram Setu (Reports on Page 3)

On Edit & op-ed, pages 10 & 11

• The Ram I know: Karan Singh

• God and us: Indian secularism isn’t built to question faith. Pretending otherwise is silly. By Saubhik Chakrabarti

• Editorial: Faithfully secular