RSS and BJP are now claiming that some NASA satellite images have shown the remains of a man-made bridge connecting India and Sri Lanka.
NEW DELHI: RSS and BJP have found a new rallying point in their campaign against the Sethusamudram project, claiming that some NASA satellite images have shown the remains of a man-made bridge connecting India and Sri Lanka.
Holding an ‘American conspiracy’ responsible for the Sethusamudram project, which he said breached the mythological Ram Sethu (better known as Adam’s Bridge), RSS chief K S Sudarshan asked the Prime Minister to halt the ongoing shipping canal project.
“This project is being opposed by all Hindus, Muslims and Christians. The two ships sent for dredging returned with their blades broken,” Sudarshan wrote in the latest issue RSS mouthpiece Panchjanya. The issue also prominently carries interviews by the BJP national president Rajnath Singh and chief ministers of BJP ruled states, demanding the project be scrapped.
The project envisages linking the Palk Strait and Gulf of Mannar by making a shipping canal through Rameshwaram Island, allowing ships to save a 16 hour detour of 400 nautical miles and Rs 21 crore worth fuel per year.
NASA in its space missions has documented the existence of a bridge on two occasions. The first was way back in 1966, from the images taken from an altitude of 410 miles encompassing all of India, an area of 12,50,000 square miles. The latest one was through Shuttle Radar Topography Mission aboard space shuttle Endeavor launched in February 2000.
“Sri Lanka is shaped like a giant teardrop falling from the southern tip of the vast Indian subcontinent. It is separated from India by the 50 km wide Palk Strait, although there is a series of stepping-stone coral islets known as Adam’s Bridge that almost form a land bridge between the two countries,” say the NASA records.
Coupled with the RSS campaign is an online petition signed by more than two thousand people till now, which will be submitted to the President and the SC.
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