Lakhs of people including leading saints and leaders of various organisations joined the countrywide fast for the protection of Ram Sethu on August 12. RSS Sarsanghachalak Shri K.S. Sudarshan and Sarkaryavah Shri Mohan Bhagwat joined the fast in Bangalore. There are reports of more than 500 meetings in Poorva Andhra Pradesh in which over 50,000 Rambhaktas participated. Thousands of people also sat on a dharna and observed fast in Chennai. More than 3,000 people under the leadership of Swami Hansdas, general secretary of Akhil Bharatiya Sant Samiti, observed fast in Dehradun. There are also reports of observing fasts in Haridwar, Rishikesh and some other parts of Uttarakhand. All these fasts were observed under the banner of Ram Sethu Raksha Manch. The thirteenth Dharma Sansad held in Delhi recently had appealed to all the countrymen to observe such fasts for the protection of Ram Sethu.
Pejawar Swami Shri Vishvesh Teertha, VHP working president Shri S. Vedantam, Kshetra Pracharak Shri Sethu Madhavan, Janata Party'sTamil Nadu unit president Chandralekha and scores of VHP activists and others participated in the dawn-to-dusk fast, singing bhajans and keertans in Chennai. Speaking to reporters, Shri S. Vedantam said the Sethusamudram project is not ?useful in anyway.? He charged that the centre and the state have a hidden agenda in implementing the project.
According to reports, a procession from Nehru Bridge to Vivekananda Bridge was organised in Ahmedabad in protest against the construction of Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project. President of Ram Sethu Raksha Manch Shri Ashok Rawal and secretary Shri Rajesh Shastri addressed the gathering.
Thousands of people observed fast in Varanasi the whole day and assembled at a meeting in the premises of Bharat Mata Mandir, Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapeeth, in the evening. Noted saint of Ramjanaki Math Shri Dhanurdhari Maharaj presided over the meeting. Dr Lakshman Das, convener of the Manch, appealed to the people to unseat the anti-Ram government from the centre. Mayor of Varanasi Shri Kaushlendra Singh described the Ram Sethu as the pransethu, which must not be broken. Shri Shambhu Singh, senior VHP leader, said saints would perform Ram Sethu Raksha yanjas at thousands of places for three weeks beginning from September 27. Joint general secretary of VHP Shri Omkar Bhave participated in the fast in Allahabad. Justice (retd.) Giridhar Malviya, Shri Mahant Gopal Maharaj and Falahari Baba also spoke on the occasion. There was a huge meeting in Kanpur. Thousands of people including Sangh Swayamsevaks observed fast in Delhi also on August 12.
(With inputs from Lok Nath in Varanasi and Ravindra Saini in Dehradun.)
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