The United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre is now caught between the devil and the deep sea. Two of its strongest pillars, the DMK from inside and the Left parties from outside, are “rocking” it so hard that a mid-term poll to the Lok Sabha appears inevitable.

As if the standoff between the Congress and the Left parties over the Indo-US nuclear agreement was not enough, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK chief M Karunanidhi’s tirade against Lord Ram in the wake of opposition to the Sethusamudram project, has left the UPA government in a huge quandary.

UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi was quick to order retraction of the Archeological Survey of India’s affidavit before the Supreme Court on the Sethusamudram project issue which, instead of confining itself to the point that there was no evidence to show that the Ramar Sethu/Adam’s Bridge was manmade, questioned the historicity of Ramayana itself. But, Karunanidhi’s acerbic comments on Rama’s “engineering skills” have exacerbated matters and handed a perfect election issue to the BJP. Quick to latch on, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has revived the catchy slogan of the 1990s, saying now it is “Ram vs Rome.”

  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. To think that only Brahmins revere Ram and other Hindus are not is naivete of the highest order. In the event of an early election, Sethu will be an issue in Tamil Nadu. Already, Jayalalitha has all but sewed up an alliance with the BJP, jettisoning the new-born third front.