Two Officials Suspended Over Hindu God Row

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NEW DELHI (Reuters, September 16, 2007): The government has

suspended two directors at its archaeology agency for their role in

a Supreme Court affidavit which suggested Hindu gods did not exist,

officials said on Saturday.

 

The row has erupted over government plans to build a canal in an

area where Hindus believe their god, Lord Ram, constructed a bridge-

like feature thousands of years ago.

 

Ambika Soni, the culture minister who confirmed the suspensions,

said she was prepared to resign over the matter if asked to by the

prime minister or the party president.

 

" If the prime minister of India ... would feel that I am culpable

and want me to resign, it won't take me a minute to do so, " she told

reporters.

 

On Wednesday the government filed an affidavit which said some of

Hinduism's most important religious texts were not evidence that the

gods ever existed.

 

The next day, after its Hindu-nationalist political opponents

accused the government of blasphemy, H.R. Bharadwaj, the law

minister, said the controversial parts of the affidavit would be

withdrawn.

 

He added that India's officially secular government would never

doubt the existence of Lord Ram.

 

The culture ministry has since suspended a director and an assistant

director at the Archaeological Survey of India, which prepared the

affidavit, while it investigates what happened, Soni said.

 

The minister said the officials had ignored some of the revisions

she wanted made after seeing a draft of the affidavit.

 

A woman who answered the telephone at the house of one of the

suspended officials said he would not be commenting for now.

 

The government filed the affidavit as it defends its plan to build a

canal through a bridge-like stretch of sandbanks and rocks between

the Indian coast and Sri Lanka -- a formation variously known as

Adam's Bridge and Ram Sethu, or Ram's Bridge.

 

Some Hindus oppose the project, believing the bridge was built

millennia ago by Lord Ram and his army of monkeys, as described in

the Ramayana, a revered ancient epic. The government has said the

structure was moulded by the ocean.

 

The $560-million Sethusamudram Ship Canal Project is intended to

shave up to 36 hours off ship journeys between India's western and

eastern coasts. Conservationists say the project will kill marine

life and harm fishermen's livelihoods.

 

SOURCE: Reuters via India News

URL: http://in.news./070915/137/6ksjl.html