Govt leaves Ram Sethu issue for SC to decide

New Delhi: After months of differences within, the government on Thursday decided to seek vacation of stay in the Supreme Court on the controversial Sethusamudram project noting that no study has been conducted to determine whether or not the bridge between India and Sri Lanka was man-made.

The Cabinet Committee of Political Affairs (CCPA), chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, which met for a second time in three days, cleared the affidavit to be filed in the Supreme Court next week.

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In the 90-page affidavit, the government maintains that no archaeological study has been undertaken to determine whether Ram Sethu is man-made or natural and without any such survey no final conclusion can be drawn, sources said.

The affidavit seeks vacation of the stay on the work on the Sethusamudram project leaving the decision on clearing the project to the court, sources said.

The Shipping Ministry has been pressing for pursuing the project urgently but the Culture Ministry has been seeking to tread cautiously considering the associated religious sentiments that could flare up.

"By not taking a clear cut stand on the issue, the government will leave it to the Supreme Court to decide on the matter now," they said.

The CCPA was also attended by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, Culture Minister Ambika Soni, Law Minister HR Bhardwaj and Shipping Minister TR Baalu.

An affidavit on the issue filed by the government in September last had created a furore as it raised questions over existence of Lord Ram. The government immediately withdrew the affidavit and suspended two officials of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) for the goof-up.

Since then, differences have been dogging the government with Culture Ministry and Shipping Ministry apparently taking divergent stands.

The Culture Ministry wanted to be cautious on the issue by saying that no study has been conducted on whether the Ram Sethu between India and Sri Lanka was man-made or natural.

The Shipping Ministry, however, wanted to state clearly in the affidavit that the bridge had been formed naturally. The Shipping Ministry will file the affidavit next week in the Supreme Court.

According to Hindu beliefs, the bridge was built by the Vanarsena for Lord Ram to cross the sea to reach Lanka for rescuing Sita.

The Supreme Court on January 31 had granted another four weeks of extension to the Centre to file affidavit by the first week of March.