Protesting destruction of Rama Sethu people of India take to streets
13 Sep 2007, 0109 hrs IST,TNN

NEW DELHI: From Jammu to Kerala lakhs of VHP workers, joined by Bajrang Dal, RSS, BJP and ABVP activists, blocked road and rail traffic in protest against Sethusamudram project which envisages dredging Ram Setu, the strip of land across the Palk Strait, mentioned in the Ramayana.

The geographical feature linking the southern tip of India to Sri Lanka is also known as Adam’s Bridge, a string of small islands which, according to Hindu mythology, was built by an army of monkeys led by Lord Ram to rescue his wife from Ravana.

The Sethu Samudram Ship Canal project aims at creating an artificial canal in the shallow ocean by dredging parts of Ram Setu, to enable vessels to save on time taken to circumnavigate the Sri Lankan island while going from west to east. Police resorted to lathicharge and fired in air at some places in the country as thousands of sangh parivar activists were arrested when they tried to enforce a three-hour ‘chakka jam’ from 8 am affecting school students and office-goers.

In Indore, the commercial capital of Madhya Pradesh, the protest took a communal turn and police had to fire teargas shells to disperse the warring groups. Trouble started at 10:30 am after protesters stopped a car. The persons inside the car objected to the road-block which led to heated exchange of words. The situation got out of hand with members of both communities pelting stones at random.

Miscreants set more than a dozen vehicles on fire, including cars. The mob got out of hand and Chandannagar became a battlefield with flying brickbats and soda bottles. Cops resorted to lathi-charge and fired over 100 tear-gas shells. It took the police two hours to bring the situation under control. In Bhopal, saffron combine got cattle from the VHP ‘gaushala (cow-shed)’ to block roads at 13 places. Around 85 trains were affected. Rail Bhavan sources said the maximum impact was felt in south India.