After the nationwide protest staged by saffron leaders against the Setusamudram project and the remarks made by the ASI that there was no any scientific evidence of the existence of characters of Ramayan, the Congress party took the decision on Thursday to withdraw the offending remarks from the affidavit filed by ASI in the court.

The affidavit says that there is no scientific or historical evidence to prove the existence of Lord Ram, events told in Ramayan and the Ram Setu built by monkey army by Lord Ram.

Union law minister HR Bhardwaj said:

Lord Ram is an integral part of Hindu faith and his existence can never be doubted. The Government would file a supplementary affidavit on the Sethusamudram canal project before the Supreme Court. The affidavit filed by ASI will be cleared of felonious remarks.

Earlier, the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) had informed the Supreme Court the story of the existence of any man-made bridge is baseless and not scientifically established anymore. There was no any evidence that the bridge was built by Lord Ram’s monkey army or the events of the Ramayana ever had happened.

The ASI later said that it couldn’t declare Ram Setu as national monument because of no established scientific evidence that might prove the existence of the characters or the events of the Ramayana.

The ASI affidavit embarrassed the UPA government and granted a political cause to BJP to stage a nation wide protest against Congress-led UPA government.

According to the report, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has also asked a clarification from the Government that why such affidavit was submitted in the court. She is looking keen to take the remedial measures now.

On the other hand, BJP has got a better chance for attacking the government on this matter. BJP president Rajnath Singh demanded an unqualified apology from the government. He said:

Why is there a picture of Ram and Krishna in the Constitution if Ram or Krishna did not exist? And why did Gandhiji, the Father of the Nation show us the dream of ‘Ramrajya’? Were all these fictitious?

He later said that such an affidavit that was filed by the ASI hurts the religious belief of the people of the country. This may trigger inter-religious conflict in the country.

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