Jai Shri Ram!!! But, Who is Rama?

Its so ironical to see people of India say "Jai Shri Ram" and the people's government says "Who is Ram?".

Well, as always, I use the blog post to point out contradictions & similarities in facts, myths, political statements, scientific statements et al and of course to raise questions, the answers for which would be given by the readers themselves.

Prologue: Government of India wants to construct the Sethusamudram canal going right through the Ram-Sethu bridge and in the process damaging it. To counter the voice in the opposition, that says that Ram-Sethu is a religious symbol constructed by Rama's warriors, the Indian government had said that Ram-Sethu is not a man-made structure and used the Archaeological Society of India's (ASI) reference.

Couple of basic questions arise and I will try to answer them, backed up with facts, of course, and also backed up with my own contradictions..

Question-1: Is Sethusamudram project economically viable and sustainable?
Answer: Questions on economics don't have a direct answer anytime. I tried my best to source information for this question and I did not search long, my first stop wikipedia gave me this..
"The project will be of particular significance to Tuticorin harbour, which has the potential to transform itself into a nodal port. The State Government has announced its proposal to develop 13 minor ports"
But the opposing view point is this...
"At the present tariff rates, ships from Africa and Europe will lose $ 4,992 on every voyage, as the savings in time for these ships are considerably lower that what is calculated in the DPR. This loss is significant as 65% of the projected users of the canal are those from Africa and Europe. If tariffs are lowered to a point where ships from Africa and Europe will not lose any money from using the canal, the IRR of the project falls to 2.6%! This is a level at which even public infrastructure projects are rejected by the government."
Cost: More than Rs.2450 crores
More References: I found a more technical explanation on why this project may not be economically viable by Mr.K.S.Ramakrishnan (fomer Deputy Chairman, Chennai Port trust) . Read it here.

Question-2:Is the project damaging a historical monument? or rephrased as, Is Ram-Sethu a man-made bridge constructed by Rama's warriors?
Answer: Well, spiritual and religious questions too don't have straight forward answers. For instance, what is the answer for questions like Is there a god? or Can you prove god's existence?
Government of India has used the ASI to back up its claim that Ram-Sethu is not a man-made bridge, but contradictions are a part of India and here is the other point of view, Dr Badrinarayanan - former director of the Geological Survey of India (GSI) & former coordinator of the survey division of the National Institute of Ocean Technology, Ministry of Earth Science says "It (Ram-Sethu) is not a natural formation; the top portion of it appears to be a man-made structure" . The entire details can be found here
More References: (Note: Not sure of the validity of these links)
http://www.rense.com/general30/nasa.htm

Question 3:Is the project environementally safe?
I believe that this is the most important question to be asked than any other question. Gulf of Mannar is the ecologically richest coastal region in India and even a slight change may cause drastic impacts.
Answer: My search for answer for this question gave an authentic NO from all fronts. This project is going to be a major environmental disaster for the region. This can be through any possible ways. Some of them listed below:

1. Oil spills from container ships.
2. Marine species get depleted or even extinct.
3. I read that Ram-Sethu was a natural barrier against sea fury and it was a major reason why Rameshwaram and adjoining areas where not affected by the Tsunami. What could happen if its gone?

Well, the above questions are layman questions. People like you and me ask those questions. A more technical and comprehensive analysis is needed (FACT: No major enviromental impact studies were done for this project). Find a more detailed analysis in wikipedia here.

Fisheries would be hugely impacted by this project. Has the Government thought anything about the fishermen folks in the entire southern coastal region?

More references: "This area has attained some sort of equilibrium over many centuries, and all the drilling and blasting of rocks may activate the fault and may trigger seismic activity or earth quakes. It may also trigger other events, which may be very detrimental. That is because the hot water from the north, which is blocked by the Adam's Bridge, will come to the south and will disturb the coral islands. The result will be the destruction of the corals. Not only that, whenever there is a major tsunami or cyclones in the Bay of Bengal, it is blocked by the so called bridge. Out of 18 depressions in the Bay of Bengal at least six turn into cyclones." Dr Badrinarayanan - former director of GSI. The complete details can be found here
NOTE: The above point sounds ominous. As I always ask, why is our dear earth and the common man a casualty for a not so sure economic development?

Question-4: Is Ramayana a mythological text and not a religious book?
Answer: The answer to this question is simple. NO. Ramayana is a religious book. The principal protagonist, Lord Rama, is accepted as a Hindu god and hence Ramayana is no means a mythological text. Arguing from another view point, and meaning no offense to anyone, can Bible be considered as mythological text even if Jesus is the main character in it? In the same way Ramayana is no way a mythological text.
I think, the government erred in a big way by projecting Ramayana as a mythological text.

Well, its politics all the way. But my questions above obviously touched the demerits of the project more than the merits. Some merits obviously are the following:

Enhanced coastal security: I am sure that the project would give more leeway and strength for the coast guard on both sides of the Ram-Sethu. This would mean enhanced secutiry for the south-Indian coastal line. No questions and agreed completely.

Anything else? Anything else?

Well, I tried my best to take a neutral stance here, trying to analyze both the positives and negatives of this project. But frankly, apart from security, I can't identify any assured positives from this project. Economic development is possible, but not assured, as I have discussed above.

With so many points against it, is it worth going ahead with the SethuSamudram project? If a layman like me can consider so many points for a project of this scale(remember its worth 2400 crores of rupees), why not the government with its massive institutional support do anything significant, before proceeding ahead?

Let me finish with some quotes from our dear politicans on this project....
"Taken up after long struggle" Mr.Karunandhi - CM of Tamil Nadu
"If anybody proves that it is man-made, I will give up my ministerial post," T.R.Baalu - Union Minister of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways
"technologically challenging and economically vital," Sonia Gandhi

and the last one....
"Its the dream of every Tamilian", Mr.Karunandhi.

I hope, sincerely, that this just remains a dream. So that the real future is more nicer and greener.

Political Hypocrisies and Double Speaks

The inspiration for this post was an article from rediff.com by Mr.Ram Madhav. I was thinking that this is just one instance of hypocrisy in the world of politics. But I always believed that our great country of the past is in such state of distress now because we've been constantly ruled by one group of people called HYPOCRITES till now. One more thing, if you think this post is going to talk about hypocrisies in political arena and its effect on nation building, then its totally wrong. My job is to list down events, words from the recent past to present, so sit down, relax and just enjoy it. Before I give the listing, let me tell you one thing, I did a lot of searching based on recent events over the internet and in the process had got the information from a lot of websites, private blogs etc. So my thanks to all those source web sites. OK now, here is the list:

1. I will start with the all famous 123 nuclear-agreement and the doublespeaks and hypocrisies involved in it. The source of information is the link I've provided above. This time our all famous left parties are the source of these words.
   Now - Left says, "India-US deal is against our national interest, since it impends our sovereignity of conducting nuclear tests." (Well, left seems to be genuine and they definitely want India to do a nuclear test whenever it wants, and hence protect our national interest. Fair enough...)
   Then - The time was when BJP led government conducted the all famous Pokhran nuclear test in May, 1998. (Man the nuclear-test-loving left should have been super happy. But wait, where they?). Left parties organized a "Convention against Nuclear Weapons" in New Delhi on June 9, 1998. (What? I thought the left love sovereign nuclear-testing. I am confused.)
2. The next instance is from the land of contradictions - Tamil Nadu. The issue here is government trying to take over cable TV operators(also called MSO - Multi System Operator).
   Then - May 2002, Jayalalitha led AIADMK government tries to push through an act, which tries to take control of the MSO (read Sun Network's Sumangali Cable Vision, which controlled 70% of cable TV subscribers in the state). DMK cries foul, claims its against democratic values. (Man, DMK is correct. Why is the government trying to take control of the MSOs. This happens only during a army coup or an emergency. Hail DMK)
   Now - August 2007, Karunanidhi led DMK government plans to establish a MSO in the state and also push an act to organize this sector. Read it in a different way - Take control of Sun Network's Sumangali Cable vision, which controls more than 70% of cable TV subscribers in the state. (What? Man, I hailed DMK on May, 2002. What's happening? Oh dear, I just realized, they are hypocrites)
3. From Tamil Nadu, now we travel to the God's own country - Kerala. This is a ideal case of hypocritic government.
   Then - Kerala government led by LDF (Left Democratic Front) bans Coca-cola citing presence of pesticides and hence public health as a reason. The words as said by Vaikom Viswan, convenor LDF, "We cannot make our people drink poison and pesticide just because we want industries here. This is not the policy of LDF". (I completely agree with the LDF. If I was the Chief Minister and I found pesticides in colas, I would ban them right away. Way to go LDF)
   Then - Around the same time when the Coca-cola was banned, statistics showed that Kerala was the biggest consumer of alcohol and Kerala government's biggest income earner was through the sale of government approved alcoholic drinks. The income - approximately 2000 crores. (Did some one tell them that alcoholic drinks are not categorized as health drinks any where in the world?).
4. We still stay in Kerala. Of course, its the god's own country and no humans want to leave that place. Check out this one, this probably is the best of all in this list.
   Then - Coca-cola is accused of depleting the ground water resources in its Plachimada plant by over utilising the ground water resources. Again Kerala's saviour LDF(with CPM as the majority share holder) leads the agitation from the front. (Way to go LDF. I am all for saving ground water and our mother earth)
   Now - CPM, our friendly communist party is the owner of a Water theme park somewhere in in the hilly regions of North Kerala. (Water theme park? Was the water red that inspired a left theme park? CPH is a more suitable name. No prizes for guessing what H stands for...)
5. We come back again to Tamil Nadu. This time the theme is dynasty politics. We have no other option but stay with DMK, as AIADMK cannot have any dynasty politics.
   Some time back - when Mr.Karunanidhi was accused of dynasty politics by projecting his sons ahead of others in his party, he was accused of dynasty politics. His response was swift "DMK is a democratic party and every party worker is elected in a democratic manner"
   Some time after 'some time back' - Kanimozhi, Karunanidhi's daughter is the member of the Rajya Sabha. (I still think she got elected democratically ;-) What say readers?)
6. For some reason I found a lot of information talking about left parties and hypocrisies. than any other political party. This time though the events are from 2 different states, Andhra and Bengal respectively.
   The Andhra event - Six people are killed in police firing in Khammam in a protest by landless agricultural labourers. CPM demanded the resignation of the Andhra CM - Mr.Reddy. (Fair enough, I would say)
   The Bengal event - A lot of people are killed in police firing in Nandigram and Singur. But the state is ruled by CPM. What about the Bengal CM? (What do you do?)
   

Well, the list above could be endless. I just picked up a few based on the events I remembered in the recent past. But what a shame? God save India...

Well I wanted to end with the previous paragraph, but why not end with another classic double speak from none other than our ambassador to the US - Ronen Sen. Here it goes...

2 days ago - Our friend Ronen said "The nuclear deal has been approved here (in Washington, DC) by the President, and there (in New Delhi) it's been approved by the Indian cabinet. So why do you have all this running around like headless chicken, looking for a comment here or comment there, and these little storms in a tea-cup?”. He also said "I can understand (such a debate) immediately after independence," he said. "But 60 years after independence! I am really bothered that 60 years after independence, they are so insecure—that we have not grown up, this lack of confidence and lack of self-respect," (I say, well said Ronen)
Yesterday - Our friend Ronen said, after a huge hue and cry by our parliamentarians, "My comment about running round like headless chicken looking for a comment here or a comment there was a tactless observation on some of my media friends and most certainly not with reference to any honourable MP,"" (Looks who chicked out)

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Note & Disclaimer: The source of the informations are news websites and some blogs from the world wide web. If you notice some discrepancies in the correctness of the information, please put in the comments section so that I can correct them.