Dalits Must Die! Palash Biswas

Dalits Must Die!
Palash Biswas

Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
Email: palashbiswaskl@gmail.com

Saturday, September 22, 2007 9:39 PM

Marxist Minister from tripura Anil Sarkar writes a poem titled, Dalitera Keno Janmaya means why the dalits are born. Anil sarkar corelates rabindra Nath Tagore, Karl marx and Ambedkar. He runs Ambedkar missions and writes poems on Mayawati. He is an architect of Dalit agenda passed by CPIM Hyderabad congress. Since he despises Brahminical Bengali nationalism and Brahminical Hegemony, he is sidelined in the party. In late nineties his house was attacked and he remained a minister without portfolio.The persecution of a Marxist minster depicts well the psyche of Indian brahminical Communists in India who single handedly stall Dalit Movement putting forward a false hypothesis of revolution and class struggle in place of annihilation of Caste and Untouchability!

Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s inspiring story Chandalika, describing how one could be freed from the shackles of untouchability through a simple act of non-violent compassion.
Feeling the heat and dust of castebased dehumanistion Chadalika asks her mother:
Keno Janmo Dili More?
Why did you allow me born?

Chandalika is a tale of a young girl, Prakriti who is born to an "untouchable" caste, or the Chandalis and is thus shunned by those around her - even the local vendors will not sell her flowers or bangles. Chandalika is bewildered and hurt at first and then becomes filled with fury and rages at the injustice. As she cries in isolation and humiliation, a wandering and thirsty Buddhist monk (Ananda) approaches her and asks for water. Chandalika refuses, explaining that she is "untouchable" and even the water from her well is impure and society forbids her to serve water to any higher individual such as the monk. The monk explains that all humans are created equal and asks her not to judge by the artificial standards of the unjust society. She offers him water and Ananda proceeds on his journey This encounter transforms Chandalika, she is filled with love and admiration for Ananda. She desperately yearns for his return. What follows is her request to the mother, Maya to get Ananda back to her......

Dalits Must Die. Because they are destined to die as born in a society ruled by Brahminical Hegemony and despite sensex globalisation blitz the polity is ruled by Post Modern Galaxy Manusmriti order under zionist hindu grand allaince.
The genocide of dalits has been going on for centuries.In India, the so called "pollution line" still divides Dalits from other castes .
What happens in India today is genocide, the barbaric hindu's massacre dalits every single day, what is the state and federal governments duty?
India has systematically failed to uphold its international legal obligations to ensure the fundamental human rights of Dalits, or so-called untouchables.
Seeking to reach out to women ahead of possible mid-term elections, BJP on Saturday endorsed 33 per cent reservation for women at all levels within the organization with its National Executive giving green signal to the "historic" measure.

Historians often ignore or underestimate the part played by maritime power in the creation, expansion, and defence of British India.American diplomats resumed travel Friday in Iraq in convoys escorted by Blackwater USA, the private American security contractor, less than a week after the Iraqi government banned the company for a shooting in which at least eight Iraqis were killed.Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has rubbished the notion that his visit to New York's World Trade Center site will be an insult to Americans as it is one of the most sensitive places in the country after the 9/11 ...

At a time when millions of African American citizens were struggling to demand equality with the majority White citizenry after more than two centuries of enslavement only to be forced into a status of untouchability after their supposed emancipation that the American Civil War was fought for, the nation was being plunged into a deadly madness of violent revolt and repression, one man found a way out of the madness and forced the segregationists to their knees, finally winning equal rights for all races and freedom from institutionalized racial discrimination. That man was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Americans and Europeans tend to think of untouchability as a uniquely Indian phenomenon, but in reality the same situation exists under different terminology. In fact, the word "caste" is not an Indian word at all, but comes from the Portuguese word "casta" which translates as "class" in English. The Portuguese word "casta" eventually evolved into "caste" after the Portuguese colonized parts of coastal India and was used to describe the ancient fourfold varna system of India, which divided society into four divisions of the priestly, warrior/ruler, merchant and laborer classes. Anyone born outside one of these four classes was considered chandal, often translated as "pariah", "outcast", or "untouchable." This shows that the concept of the outcast in a society is not unique to India, and makes the story all the more relevant to the work of GFUSA since the elimination of the concept of the outcast is an issue of social justice and equality, and therefore one of the tasks of GFUSA and applies to their work in America, as well as in India or anywhere else in the world.

Tagore’s story is about an untouchable girl named Prakriti (Sasikala Penumarthi) who is vilified, humiliated and harassed by street vendors at the urging of a group of high caste women who take delight in demeaning the girl. After suffering the emotional torture of such mistreatment, Prakriti encounters a Buddhist monk named Ananda (Neelima Tummala), who treats her as an equal, something Prakriti has never experienced. Prakriti comes to the realization that the feelings she had experienced were not romantic love as she had thought, but a deep and loving appreciation for being treated with compassion and equality. Ananda, now unable to move because of the compelling spell, begs Prakriti to give him some water to quench his agonizing thirst. But she is at first unwilling to put the water to his lips because she has been conditioned by society to believe that, as an untouchable, she is impure and sinful, and to touch Ananda or to allow him to take water from her hands would pollute him with her untouchability, thereby making make him impure as she believes herself to be. But Ananda explains to her that he does not accept the concept of untouchability, nor does he believe her to be impure. He tells her that by giving him water to quench his thirst she would be performing an act of compassion and mercy on her part, and that acts of love, mercy and compassion wipes away all sin and all impurity. She gives him the water to drink and he recovers from his infirmity, filling her with joy at his recovery and at the realization that she is not impure after all, but a worthy and deserving child of God, as is every other living being, and joyfully decides to follow Ananda on the path of Buddha Dharma, no longer plagued by the stigma of believing herself to be impure simply because of her so-called untouchability. As the story closes, Prakriti is accepted into the Sangha, the Buddist fellowship, and happily follows the band of Buddhist monks as they slowly walk off the stage, chanting the beautiful strains of the mantra buddham sharanam gachhami.

Dalitstan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalitstan
Dalitstan.org was a website claiming to be run by The Dalitstan Organization , an otherwise unknown organization advocating the secession of the Republic of India into several separate nations from India including a Dalit homeland.
The "Sudra Holocaust" is described by the organization as follows:

"The concept of a Sudra Holocaust is generally denied by the Brahmanist Government. It does not require the knowledge of an archaeologist, however, to grasp the historicity of the Sudra Holocaust. ... However, at the present day, Shaivism is confined to the Dalits and Adivasis, who form 25% of the population. There are also very few Shiva temples, and Brahmanism (Vedism and Vaishnavism) are the predominant religions of North India. Shaivism, meanwhile, continues to flourish in south India, with Tamil Nadu as its prime locus. This fact once again can only be explained by invoking the Sudra Holocaust, with the Shiva temples and Shaivite civilization which was built up by the indigenous Sudroids being wiped out by the Vaishnava Aryans."

None of these claims or ideas are supported or endorsed by any reputable historians, archaeologists or scholars on South Asian studies. As an example, Shaivism, contrary to the claims made by Dalitstan, is widely practiced in many sections of Hindu society of many Castes, such as in Kashmir in North India and among Tamils [5],[6]. In addition Shaivism and Vaishnavism are movements within Hinduism that occurred several centuries after the splitting of Proto-Indo-Iranian.

And see the India Shining!

Congress for so many days is trying to close the chapter of Ram Sethu and Ram’s existence but its allies are in mood to confront with BJP on the issue. Congress wants to leave no stone unturned to prevent the hijacking of the issue by BJP to its advantage keeping in view the coming elections. On the other hand, The Bharatiya Janata Party must have realised by now that the Ram Sethu controversy will not be a rerun of the Ram temple issue of a decade-and-a-half ago which propelled the party from the margins of Indian politics to centre-stage.
The reason is that there is no anti-Muslim angle in the Sethu dispute. As such, it will not be possible for the party to exploit communal sentiments, as it did in the 1990s, to build up political support. Meanwhile,the BJP leadership today hinted that LK Advani would be its candidate for Prime Minister but an ailing Atal Bihari Vajpayee soon caused a flutter in the party with a few cryptic lines.

Bhubaneswar: Swami Nischalananda Saraswati, the Shankaracharya of Puri, has urged the government to amend the law relating to conversions and make provision for stricter punishment for those using allurement as a means to convert poor people.

Kolhapur : Shiv Sena leader and MLA Sadabha Sarvankar has said his party will oppose any move to relocate Mumbai's Siddhivinayak temple.Opposing any move to relocate Dadar's famous Siddhivinayak temple, Shiv Sena Executive president Uddhav Thackeray today sought to know whether the country could also be shifted if it was unsafe.

Bijapur : State unit President of Hindu Sena Pramod Muthalik today threatened to launch an agitation including blocking of the border with Tamil Nadu if Chief Minister M Karunanidhi did not withdraw his remark on Lord Ram.

Jalpaiguri : Discontent is brewing of in tea belt of West Bengal that it may lead to closure sixteen more tea estates when efforts are on to reopen 13 closed tea gardens in the district, sources said.

Singur : Tension ran high in Singur today after an out-of-job farmer allegedly committed suicide near the Tata Motors' small car project area.The body of Srikanta Shee, 37, was found hanging from a tree near his hut at Sanapara in Gopal Nagar area this morning fuelling the allegation of unemployment and rising incidence of starvation following acquisition of agricultural land for the industrial project.Local Trinamool Congress MLA Rabindranath Bhattacharjee led demonstrations in front of the Singur police station and Srirampur Walsh Hospital, where Shee's body was sent for post mortem.This was the fourth incident of a farmer committing suicide in the Singur area over the past one year.The incident took place three days before the Trinamool Congress Chief Mamata Banerjee's visit to the area for a public rally to be held to persist with the movement, spearheaded by the Krishi Jami Raksha Committee, demanding that land be returned to the farmers.

Kolkata: The mysterious death of a Muslim youth, married to a businessman's daughter against her family's wish, sparked a clash between cops and a mob in Kolkata Saturday even as a rights body claimed the deceased was constantly threatened by two top police officers to end the marriage. The mob went on a rampage in Park Circus area and set a police vehicle on fire around noon. The body of Rizwanur Rehman, a 30-year-old English honours graduate and a graphics designer, was found with injury marks beside a railway track the day before. His head had been smashed in.

When a rumour spread that the body of Rizwanur - who had married Priyanka Todi of Salt Lake in northeastern Kolkata - had gone missing from the police morgue, a mob gathered in Park Circus in south Kolkata, where he used to live. The area turned into a battlefield as the irate mob first blocked a road and then damaged a private bus. The group then attacked policemen with bricks and a jeep was set on fire. The police charged the mob with sticks and used teargas to bring the situation under control. The Rapid Action Force (RAF) was also deployed in the area.More than a dozen people, including cops, were injured.

"We will probe whatever the allegations - whether the youth died accidentally or committed suicide or by any other means. But the entire violence was because of rumours of his body missing from the morgue. Even some TV channels spread this rumour," Kolkata Police Commissioner Prasun Mukherjee told reporters at the spot. The police later confirmed that the body of Rizwanur was in the morgue of the Nil Ratan Sircar Medical College and Hospital.

Meanwhile, Sujato Bhadro of the Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR), who was approached by Rizwanur after alleged threatening calls from police, told IANS: "The girl should be brought before people and an independent inquiry should be ordered as this is a case of communal behaviour by police. It is complete abuse of power by the police and some rich people." Bhadra said a letter by Rizwanur clearly mentioned the names of top cops like Gyanwant Singh (deputy commissioner of police headquarters), Ajay Kumar (deputy commissioner, detective department-I) and police officer Sukanta Chakraborty as the ones who threatened him.

"This is inhuman and not an accidental case. The girl was taken back by her parents after putting pressure on Rizwanur. She last spoke to him from Tirupati where she was taken by her parents. Her parents forced her to tell Rizwanur that he should not approach the media or take legal steps to get her back," Bhadro alleged.

"Sadiq, a witness to their marriage, was also threatened by police," Bhadro said.

While the railway police filed a case as it was seen as a case of being hit by a train, Rizwanur's family alleged that he had been threatened by his in-laws since his wedding in August 2006 and repeatedly asked to divorce his wife.

"My brother was also threatened several times by personnel from Karaya police station and senior police officials from Lal Bazar, the headquarters of Kolkata Police. We suspect that there is some foul play in my brother's death," said Rukbanur, Rizwanur's elder brother, at their Tiljala Lane house.

The house of the Todis in Salt Lake was locked and a police picket was posted there while the body of Rizwanur was brought to his family for burial after a post-mortem examination.

Mamata Banerjee, chief of West Bengal's main opposition Trinamool Congress, demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry into the matter, alleging that the state police's Criminal Investigation department (CID) could not be trusted.

The victim's friend Sadiq said that the last message he had received from Rizwanur had said: "Raise the voice of opposition after my death".

Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray was arrested on Saturday, for the second time ever for repeatedly failing to respond to court summons to depose in a defamation case filed against him.Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former deputy prime minister Lal Kishenchand Advani is contemplating another rath yatra to pay homage to those who sacrificed everything for the country's freedom.Speaking on Saturday at a massive public gathering, coinciding with his party's three-day national executive meeting that got underway in Bhopal on Friday, Advani recalled his rath yatra from Somnath to Ayodhya and said the journey had not only altered the course of national politics, but also brought several changes in him.

This is the third incident of mob fury in recent times, in what's emerging as Bihar's own brand of brutal justice.There has been a string of incidents in which mobs have lynched suspected criminals in Bihar. And for that matter, Ranjesh is the only survivor among the 11 alleged thieves lynched by an angry mob at the Rajapakar village in Vaishali.IBNlive reports.While Ranjesh barely escaped alive the others didn’t. The bodies of the 10 alleged thieves were found lying in the paddy fields. Villagers say they were caught red-handed, running away with cash and jewellery.In yet another instance of the mob taking the law into its hands, two persons were lynched on suspicion of being robbers in Bihar. The incident took place at Nutan Colony in Sultanganj on Friday night. The police are yet to identify the deceased.A mob of over 300 people nabbed the two men while they were allegedly trying to escape after robbing a person, Deputy Superintendent of Police S P Choudhary told rediff.com.

Earlier this week, an angry mob attacked three men and blinded them in Nawada district.

Last month, policemen in Bhagalpur helped a mob beat up a suspected thief. The administration is running out of excuses.

"Four or five incidents have occurred. Are they isolated incidents or part of a trend?" asks Chief Minister, Bihar, Nitish Kumar.

"It is every person's right to protect themselves. They should do that," says IG Muzaffarpur, Krishna Chaudary.

And the Opposition is already crying foul.

"There is no law and order in the state. It is a complete anarchy," says former chief minister, Bihar, Lalu Prasad.

First in Bhagalpur then Nawada, and now Vaishali, the people imparting street justice now.

Dalit man beaten to death in Bihar
A Dalit man was beaten to death and another seriously injured by landowners in a Bihar village over a land-related dispute, police said Thursday.

Bhagwat Ravidas, 60, a landless labourer, died after he was lynched by landowners and their henchmen in Bhadrar village in Banka district, about 200 km from here.

Bhagwat's relative, Hari Ravidas, was also seriously injured in the incident. He was admitted to a hospital in a critical condition Wednesday.

Police said poverty-stricken and landless Dalits have been living on land owned by the government for decades.

"Landowners and their henchmen attacked the Dalits and destroyed their thatched huts Tuesday night in a bid to capture the land. Bhagwat and Ravi were beaten up when they tried to put up a protest," a police official said.

A case has been lodged against 49 people in this connection but no one has been arrested yet.

Last week, 10 people belonging to the Nat community, were lynched in Vaishali district. A high-level probe has found the 10 men were not thieves as suspected earlier.

In another incident, two minor boys were beaten up and their heads tonsured partially when they were suspected of stealing detergent powder from a shop in Nawada district.

Amulya Ganguli writes:
In contrast, the BJP must have noted with dismay that there is a distinct possibility of the Sethu affair leading to Hindu vs Hindu clashes, as has already been evident in the attack on the Bangalore house of the daughter of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, following the latter's anti-Ram comments.

Any such development, reminiscent of caste conflicts, will be hugely damaging to all the parties involved. In the present instance, it is the BJP and the DMK, which have squared off for a fight over what many people will consider an esoteric issue.

It is perhaps to avoid such clashes — which claimed two lives when a bus from Tamil Nadu was set on fire probably by Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) activists near Bangalore — that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has intervened. The suggestion of this paterfamilias of the saffron brotherhood is to set up a panel — the Ramesswaram Ram Sethu Raksha Manch — to conduct a movement to 'save' the Sethu, thereby denying the BJP the leadership role.

The move is in tune with the earlier exhortations by the VHP to the BJP not to politicise the dispute. In making this appeal, the VHP may have had in mind the fate of the 'politicised' temple agitation, which has faded out.

The decision of the RSS will partly check the BJP's attempts to make political capital out of the issue — something which will not please L.K. Advani, the party's senior leader, who was said to have been contemplating embarking on yet another rath yatra (chariot ride), recalling such a journey he made in 1990 to launch the Ram temple agitation.

While the success of that movement made the BJP eager to seize on the Ram Sethu dispute, its enthusiasm is not shared this time by some of its allies. The Janata Dal-United (JD-U), for instance, which is in power in Bihar along with the BJP, has dismissed the subject as a non-issue, declaring that other matters, such as poverty and unemployment, were more important.

This indifference of even the BJP's partners is probably due to the perception that the repeated use of religious symbols to boost political prospects can breed cynicism even among their traditional supporters about their motives.

As is known, the BJP's Ayodhya agitation was based on the propagation of the belief that the Mughal emperor, Babur, had built the Babri masjid at the site where Lord Ram was born. Similarly, the Ram Sethu issue is based on the conviction that this 'natural formation' comprising coral reefs and sand banks, which is also known as the Adam's bridge in the Palk Strait, is the mythical bridge built by Ram's simian militia when the Hindu deity went to Sri Lanka to rescue his abducted wife, Sita, from the demon king, Ravan.

However, as the DMK's response has shown, there is also a north-south divide on the subject, precluding the possibility of the Hindutva camp building up a national movement. If sections in the south are lukewarm about the issue, if not positively hostile, the reason is the tradition of anti-brahmin and anti-north Indian stance, which the Dravidian parties have adopted to consolidate their mainly backward and lower caste support base.
http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=14531436

The Ram Sethu controversy is being used as a chess board on which Lord Ram has been made a Pawn in the hands of politicians who can use him the way they get the maximum gains. Whole episode can provide BJP a chance to gain its eroded support and lost position at centre. Congress getting alert of the political mileage naturally going to Bhartiya Janata Party being a so-called custodian of Hindu interests is reported to make a modest plea to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister not to further push the controversy so as to erode the support base of the Congress party in North especially in Hindu voters due to the adverse comments of the ally of UPA government.No doubt that Congress is conscious of the coming parliamentary elections which can present a changed graph of the poll’s results if the allies continue to resort to such provocative remarks about the most worshipped god of Hindus which constitute around 80 percent of the population of India.

India may have a booming economy with a soaring stock exchange fast growing technology and services sector, but it's built on service of a much more unpleasant kind, as this week's Unreported World reveals.

Reporter Ramita Navai and Producer Siobhan Sinnerton travel through India exposing the horrific plight of the country's 170 million Dalits; Literally meaning "the broken people" - and previously called "the untouchables", they are at the bottom of India's caste system and are some of the most oppressed people on Earth.

Economic growth has done little to improve the Dalits' lot; despite legislation, they still form 60 per cent of all those below the poverty line. Now, as Unreported World reports, Dalits are starting to fight for political power in an Indian civil rights movement against segregation every bit as bad as apartheid South Africa and the 1950s American South.

The team begin their journey with Dalits who are manual scavengers - a polite term for those whose role in life is to clean latrines by hand. It's a practise which is officially illegal, but a million Dalits do it every day. Navai accompanies Sangita as she begins her daily job cleaning the latrines of upper caste families. She is the third generation to do this and tells Navai that she desperately wishes her children don't suffer the same role.

Not only is it degrading, but the work can be dangerous. The team is told about a Dalit who has died after being overcome by fumes while cleaning a deep sewer. Other Dalits have dragged his body outside the municipality that hired him in protest. By law no Indian municipalities are permitted to employ manual scavengers, so the team goes to question the Chief Officer of the municipality. He denies that any scavengers are employed, despite the crowd outside who claim they are his employees.

The position of Dalits at the bottom of the caste ladder is deeply ingrained and those who step out of line are often ritually humiliated or punished with violence. In Devaliya an activist takes the team to a refuge full of Dalit families who have fled violence and harassment from upper caste families. Inside, Rudiben tells Navai that her husband had been standing up for the rights of Dalits in their village, angering the dominant caste and resulting in a horrific attack when he was speared to death by upper caste villagers. She says that when the case went to court, the villagers threatened to kill her children, intimidated the main witness and were subsequently aquitted.

In Maharashtra, the team meets Bhayalal, whose wife, daughter and two sons were beaten to death after he complained about access to land. Eleven villagers are currently on trial for murder. The Indian Government introduced an atrocities against Dalits law to deal with caste crime 18 years ago, but its implementation has been abysmal with a conviction rate of just two per cent.

Traveling to the eastern state of Bihar, the team finds a group of very young protesters - including school children who are forced by their teachers to clean toilets rather than study when they go to school. One boy tells Navai that when he asked to use the toilet, his teacher locked him in the cubicle for six hours.

Just as Black Americans did in the 1950s, educated Dalits are forming civil rights movements, challenging local governments and demanding equal access to services. As the team leaves the country, it's clear these leaders face an uphill struggle against such an entrenched system, but the price of failure will be to condemn millions to continuing misery and degradation.

Bangalore: A large group of Dalits, including women and children, under the banner of Dalit Liberation Human Rights Forum-Karnataka, on Friday staged a demonstration in front of Mahatma Gandhi statue, here demanding punishment to those responsible for various types of inhuman treatment meted out to them in the State.The protesters alleged that the Janata Dal (Secular)-Bharatiya Janata Party Government headed by H.D. Kumaraswamy had failed to protect the interests of women and children among Dalits and other weaker sections. They demanded dismissal of this Government for failing to discharge its responsibilities.
State convenor of the forum Basavaraj Kautal alleged that 16,000 persons had secured jobs in various cadres in the State Government producing false caste certificates and impersonating as Dalits. He demanded filing of criminal cases against them under the Prevention of Atrocities Act and replacing them with the qualified and eligible Dalits.

The State Human Rights Commission should constitute a committee to go into the charges of untouchability in the anganvadis, midday meal centres and other public places, he said.

Flaying Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi for his remarks on 'Lord Rama', Vishweswara Theertha Swami of Pejawar Mutt in Karnataka's Udupi district, today invited him for a public debate on the issue.

In Bhubaneswar, Vishwa Hindu Parishad today asked its cadres and other like-minded people to file police complaints against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi for allegedly hurting the sentiments of Hindus by his recent statement on Ram Setu. The call was given by VHP's international general secretary Pravin Togadia, who said its activists and others would start filing FIRs against Karunanidhi from September 24. He said at least 1,000 FIRs were ready to be filed in different police stations in the country on Monday.

Firebrand saffron leader Uma Bharti today filed a police complaint here against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress President Sonia Gandhi, DMK chief Karunanidhi and some others for allegedly hurting the sentiments of the Hindu community on the Ram Setu issue. In the complaint filed at the Parliament Street Police Station, she demanded action against Law Minister H R Bharadwaj, Culture Minister Ambika Soni and Shipping Minister T R Baalu. The Bharatiya Janshakti Party leader sought action against Gandhi, Singh and his cabinet colleagues Bharadwaj, Soni and Baalu in connection with the controversial Ram Setu affidavit filed in the Supreme Court, saying the "sentences and words" in the document hurt the sentiments of Hindus.

Stepping up its campaign on the Ram Sethu issue, the BJP today attacked on the Congress-led coalition at the Centre, demanding its unqualified apology for denying existence of Ram and said a government displaying "such ignorance does not deserve to stay in office". A resolution on Ram Sethu was approved at the party's ongoing national executive meeting here, but senior leader Murli Manohar Joshi made it clear that the party "would not directly take up the campaign. It will support the Rameshwaram Ram Sethu Raksha Manch to save the bridge.

"We had never promised to construct the Ram temple ourselves, but had promised support to the endeavour undertaken by trusts like the Ram Janma Bhoomi Nyas," Joshi told reporters, adding "we will also extend all possible support to the Manch for preservation the Sethu".

Strongly condemning the affidavits submitted by the ASI on the Ram Sethu issue in the Supreme Court, he said instead of totally withdrawing the "blasphemous" affidavit and apologizing for its submission, the UPA government has even failed to identify as to who drafted it and at what level it was approved.
Reiterating the demand for declaring Ram Sethu as a world heritage monument, Joshi said his party disapproves the diversionary tactics adopted by certain groups by raising slogans and arguments which tend to divide people on the basis of geographical, linguistic and racial theories, which have long been rejected by scholars and the people as well.

Mumbai: In a veiled criticism of DMK leader Karunanidhi over his remarks on Lord Ram, NCP chief Sharad Pawar today said "people should desist from making remarks that hurt anybody's beliefs". The decision on the Sethusamudram project was taken when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister, Pawar said. "At that time, there was a demand from both DMK and AIADMK. I am not aware why there is a change now," he said.

Asked if the 'Ram lehar' (Ram wave), sought to be created by some parties, would be a major issue during the next polls, Pawar said "elections are not fought over the same issue again".

Priest's murder: Dara Singh, 3 others get life imprisonment

Dara Singh, serving a life sentence for the murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines, was on Saturday sentenced to a life term for the killing of a Catholic priest in Mayurbhanj district eight years ago.Three others -- Jadunath Mahanto, Chema Ho and Rajkishore Majanto -- were also sentenced to life by District Judge Sachidananda Sahu who had convicted them on Septemeber 11.They were also sentenced to seven years rigorous imprisonment for burning a church, five years for trespass and three years for armed attack.