DMK president M. Karunanidhi on Monday slammed his archrival AIADMK supremo and chief minister Jayalalithaa for demanding national monument status for Ram Sethu.
In a statement issued here, Mr Karunanidhi said that the ruling AIADMK, which opposed the project citing feasibility issues and religious sentiments, had in its manifesto for the 2001 state assembly election and 2004 general elections promised that it would urge the Centre to allocate funds to implement Sethu project.
“We (DMK) are not against (Lord) Ram as is being made out. We are asking why do you oppose demolition of a non-existent bridge,” he said referring to Ram Sethu or Adam’s Bridge.
He said DMK founder and Dravidian veteran, the late C. N. Annadurai, had pitched for the project in 1967 as then chief minister. “But Aryan forces are trying to demolish his dreams,” he said in a statement.
Slamming those opposed the project, he likened them to the anti-nuclear agitators at Koodankulam, asking why they were protesting after the project had begun.
The DMK leader, whose party MPs recently called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, calling for early implementation of the project, said people of the state should identify those playing spoilsport under “fictitious reasons.”