In India, where religion is all-pervasive, it was a comment destined to misfire.
At issue was a US$577 million project to dredge a shipping channel in between India and Sri Lanka -- right through a chain of limestone shoals and sand that Hindus believe was built by the god king Rama.
The plan had already angered Hindu leaders, but things grew far hotter after government archeologists spoke up last week. A report to the Supreme Court by the Archeological Survey of India said the shoals were the result of "several millennia of wave action and sedimentation" and "the issue cannot be viewed solely relying on the contents of mythological text."
Those were fighting words.
To right-wing Hindu groups, the government was dismissing Hinduism's most sacred texts.
L.K. Advani, a senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the most powerful Hindu political party, called the government's position "an insult to millions of Hindus all over the world."
Hindu activists marched across the country. They blocked traffic and stopped trains.
On Friday, grappling with the potential political backlash of offending millions of Hindus, the government sheepishly agreed to withdraw the statement by the Archaeological Survey of India.
"Rama is an integral part of the life of the Hindu," Law Minister H.R. Bharadwaj told reporters.
The government has bought time by asking the Supreme Court for three months to reframe its legal position on the channel, and the next hearing on the matter is scheduled for January.
But the decision was a major political blow for the Congress party-led government, and is sure to slow the Sethusamudram Ship Channel Project -- perhaps for years. It has also given enormous political ammunition to the opposition, which is led by the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The issue highlights what most political observers have long known about Indian politics -- that the secular political system doesn't mean the state steers clear of religion. Instead, it most often means the government has to walk a fine line: using religion to gain votes, when possible, while studiously avoiding offending any particular faith.
In India, which is 81 percent Hindu, that mostly means making sure Hindu political parties don't get upset.
"It is pure politics," political scientist Mushirul Hasan said of the uproar. "The [Bharatiya Janata Party] is a political party that has blatantly exploited religious issues since its inception."
The Sethusamudram project has been discussed for decades as a way to speed the time it takes ships to travel between India's coasts. Because the shoal-filled waterway is too shallow, ships currently have to sail around Sri Lanka. The channel is expected to reduce the sailing time by more than 30 hours.
The present government finally sanctioned the project in 2005, proposing deepening the 165km-long, 300m-wide waterway, and opening it to ships next year. But last month, amid criticism from Hindu leaders, the Supreme Court stepped in and barred all work until it had heard from both sides.
There has been criticism from other groups, too. Conservationists say the project will destroy marine life and take jobs from Indian and Sri Lankan fishermen. Some scientists worry the dredging could affect the flow of currents and water temperatures.
But it took the Hindu protests to turn the issue into page-one news.
According to Hindu mythology, Rama built the chain of shoals and reefs -- known to most Hindus as Rama Setu, or Rama's Bridge -- with the help of the monkey god Hanuman and his army of helpers. They used it to travel to Sri Lanka to battle the demon king Ravana, who had abducted Rama's wife, Sita.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS