Boon or bane? In order to reduce the steaming distance between the eastern and western coasts and to improve navigation within Indian territorial waters, a channel connecting the Gulf of Mannar and Palk Bay has been taken up. Critics, including ecologists and mariners, however, have a different take on the project, writes S Murari
A disaster in waiting The Sethusamudram Shipping Channel Project (SSCP) is an ecologic disaster which portends loss of marine species and fisheries and livelihood for the fishing and other coastal communities, besides damage to environment. Strangely, the project has been taken up without a comprehensive Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) clearance.
Question of faith The decision of the Union government to implement the Sethusamudram project by destroying the Ramar Sethu has been vitiated by arbitrariness, unreasonableness and plain malice on part of the DMK. The so-called Dravidian movements adulation of Ravana is a part of its anti-Brahmin, anti-Rama tirade.
Return of the Ram politics By raising the pitch, Karunanidhi appears to have played into the hands of the BJP. His reckoning that Ram cannot be an issue in the land of Periyar ignores the changes that have taken place in Tamil Nadu in the last 60 years, more so in the last 40 years of Dravidian rule and Hindu bashing is no longer passe. ...
This project makes no nautical sense The Sethusamudram Shipping Channel Project (SSCP), an off-shore shipping canal project in the Palk Bay, plans to cut short the distance navigated by ships sailing from the west coast of India to the eastern seaboard and vice versa, by precluding the necessity to circumnavigate Sri Lanka.
Is Sonia Gandhi trying to promote dynastic rule by appointing her son Rahul as general secretary of the Congress? Will Rahul be able to revive the fortunes of the party in the next Parliament elections? Deccan Herald had invited its readers to send in their opinions. Rahul has been hailed as a young and promising leader by several readers who have appreciated Sonia’s move. However, there are several others who have questioned the credibility of the Congress party in appointing Rahul, who they say is a novice.
