Ramar Sethu : VHP to organise nationwide token fast on 12th August

Addressing a press conference here today, VHP International Working President S Vedantham said about 20 per cent of Ramar Sethu had been demolished, despite the Madras High Court’s recent observation that the Centre could preserve it as a national heritage monument.

“This showed that they have scant regard for the High Court’s observation. It has set a wrong precedence and is highly condemnable. We suspect that there is an ulterior motive in implementing the project hastily,” he said.

Vedantham said the Udupi Pejawar Mutt head would lead the hunger protest on the sands of Marina here.

Vedantham said the VHP would also organise a ‘Rameswaram Chalo’ agitation, under which lakhs of Ram devotees and mutt heads would converge on Rameswaram on August 26 and take a pledge to make any sacrifice to protect Ramar Sethu.

Refuting the SSCP Chairman’s recent claim that US space agency NASA had concluded that Ramar Sethu was not man made, he said NASA had clarified, in response to an e-mail by the outfit, that their information was based solely on astronaut photography dataset, which did not provide information on the age, subsurface structure or composition of islands in the Palk Straits.

He said NASA had clarified that “to interpret our response as if it is a scientifically rigorous conclusion as to the nature of Palk Strait islands is both misinterpretation and misreporting and thus inappropriate.”