UPA scores another self-goal on Ram Sethu, panel quotes German scholars that Ramayana a ‘fairy tale, no fact’

NEW DELHI, JANUARY 19: The ambitious Rs 2427-crore Sethusamudram Ship Canal Project has once again hit a political wall with the expert committee formed to look into concerns raised by diverse sections on the project committing the same mistake that sparked off the controversy in the first place. It has quoted the work of two German scholars calling the Ramayana a “fairy tale,” just months after its affidavit that there was no proof that Ram existed touched off a political storm.

It’s learnt that the two-volume report of the 10-member committee has included a quote from the work of two German scholars from the 1880s which states: “The narration of the Indian epic (Ramayana) appears to us nothing more than a pious fairy tale without factual basis.”

This has put the Government in a spot not only forcing it to seek more time from the Supreme Court but also delaying decision on accepting the report despite pressure from Shipping Minister T R Baalu.

Sources, however, said Culture Minister Ambika Soni is unwilling to accept the report and this sense is shared among senior Congress ministers as the contents will only ignite another controversy.

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 In an affidavit filed before the Supreme Court in September last year (withdrawn later following a major uproar), the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) had stated: “...contents of the Valmiki Ramayana, the Ramcharitmanas by Tulsidas and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.”

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