The countrywide signature campaign launched by Hindu Jagaran Manch, Hindu Munnani and various other nationalist organisations against the Setusamudaram Project and to save the historic Shri Ramsetu has received tremendous response all over the country. The month long signature campaign had begun on Varsha Pratipada day. Intellectuals, scholars and various distinguished people of the society extended thier full support to the campaign and demanded immediate scrapping of the Project, which would completely destroy the historic Shri Ramsetu built by Shri Ram with the help of his vanar sena.
So far about 19,00,000 signatures have been collected by the central office of Hindu Jagaran Manch in New Delhi and about 6,00,000 more signatures are expected from various states. These signatures would be presented to the President of India Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam in September this year with the request to direct the Central Government to scarp the Project. The date of meeting the President is still to be finalised. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh also extended its full support to the signature campaign in several states.
Talking to Organiser over telephone from Chennai, Shri Ramgopal, president of Hindu Munnani said the Setusamudaram Project, if implemented, would completely destroy all the three historic and religious places?Shri Ramsetu, Kodand Rama Swamy temple and Dhalushkoti, the place of various pilgrimage centres. He said the project is a direct attack on Hindu sentiments and proves that the government has no respect to the sentiments of the majority community of the country. He said the 30-km-long Ramsetu is just four feet deep in the sea and can be realised by anyone under the water. He said if the Setusamudaram Project is executed the bridge will totally be destroyed following deeper digging in the sea. He said the government must review the project keeping in view the sentiments of Hindus and should find some alternative ways. He said the Ramsetu, if once destroyed, couldn'tbe built again by anyone.
The agitation against the Setusamudaram Project is getting momentum and people from all walks of life are coming forward to save Shri Ramsetu. Some dharmacharyas of Varanasi have planned to go to the Supreme Court against the project. Shankaracharya Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati said Shri Ramsetu is not just an imaginary thing but a reality, which has been proved by NASA also. NASA in October 2002 had taken some space images of the bridge between Sri Lanka and Bharat. NASA had also said that the bridge was about 17,50,000 years old, which matches with the advent of Shri Ram during Tretayuga. Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shri Shivraj Singh Chauhan in a letter to the President has also demanded reconsideration on the Setusamudaram Project. He said the project is hurting the Hindu sentiments. The Project was envisaged decades back and it was always kept pending by the successive governments. But the UPA government soon after coming to power has taken it up and Congress president Smt. Sonia Gandhi, while campaigning for assembly elections in Tamil Nadu recently, had claimed it as one of the most important demands of the people of Tamil Nadu, which the UPA government has fulfilled.
