J Bhairanna of the Sri Rama Sethu Rakshana Samithi said that the organisation has decided on a ‘Rameshwaram Chalo’ programme as a protest against the proposed ‘Sethu Samudram’ Yojana on the 26th of this month.

“ Sri Rama is the reigning deity for many people in India. His vanarasene had built that bridge from Rameshwaram to Sri Lanka to rescue Sita from Ravana and it holds a a special place in our religious sentiments. The bridge has enormous historic importance and is sacred to the Hindus given its role in Ramayan. Therefore it is unacceptable to us that the Central Government proposes to demolish this important link to our  history and tradition” he said. He added that structures that have a historic significance, be it temples, mosques or churches in our culture should be  preserved  for the  next generation. “These structures standing testimony to our history and there is no better way to introduce our children to our glorious past” was his  opinion.

He said that this was the reason that governments spent  crores of rupees to safeguard this treasure trove.
“ To protect the Qutub Minar, the metro rail route was changed in Delhi and the Taj corridor was given up to protect the beautiful Taj Mahal.” said Bhairanna.

“ The soul of our  country is in the spirituality that is the propagated by our scriptures. Sri Rama was a living embodiment of all that is good about our culture and the samithi strongly opposes the centre’s move to demolish the historic Ram sethu under the Sethu Samudra Yojana” he said.

He also charged that America had a selfish interest in the whole matter and was pushing for the bridge’s demolition because it has its eye on the mineral rich area. “ There is no  question of any person agreeing to this proposal of the Central government as it hurts the religious  sentiments of them all. Mr Bhairanna added that the project went beyond toying with  religious  sentiments of the people and the poor fishermen.