The Sethusamudram canal project, that was progressing by the hour with a daily report on website on how much of the Rama Sethu was being dredged out every day, suddenly hit a roadblock a week ago. This forthwith landed the Central Government and the UPA in yet another crisis and led to an undignified tirade against Rama himself. The backlash of it threatens to bring Rama himself back to national politics, with or without Ayodhya.

Who is to be faulted for this? No one other than the protagonists of the Sethusamudram canal project, the DMK, themselves. Those who opposed the canal project in its present form were crying from housetops that they were not opposed to the canal as such. They only wanted the canal to be realigned so that the Rama Sethu was not harmed. But the DMK contemptuously dismissed them again and again. It kept seeing the Rama Sethu as a villain of the Sethusamudram canal as if without breaking the Rama Sethu the canal was a non-starter.

Consequently, the entire judicial battle and street brawl over Sethusamudram canal centred around the physical violation of the Rama Sethu that looked inevitable.

This forced the defenders of the Rama Sethu to bring Rama himself as the defence. They relied on the Ramayana and the Rama traditions to contend that the Rama Sethu was a historic monument. This forced the proponents of Sethusamudram to deny historicity to Rama Sethu. For that Rama himself had to be declared as a figment of Valmiki's imagination.

The underlying trigger for the avoidable debate on Rama was the hoax played on the people that if the Rama Sethu were to exist the Sethusamudram had to be given up. This is what led to a disastrous actionreaction syndrome which has the potential to change the complexion of politics in the country.

First, it compelled those who wanted the Rama Sethu preserved to rely on Rama for its historicity. Next, it forced the Central Government to contend on the ill-fated affidavit that as Rama was an imaginary character, the Rama Sethu was no monument and so it could be done away with. When this brought forth a tsunami of angry response, the government ran away from the court not only taking back the affidavit and throwing it into the dustbin, but also almost telling the court that it would implement the project only with the consent of all.

In this rapid development, the DMK was left shell-shocked. With the Central Government U-turning on the affidavit and the Law Minister asking who can deny the existence of Rama, the DMK got into double jeopardy. Not only was its pet project stymied, but also its ideology of atheism - of course selectively limited to Hindu Gods - got into serious risk. How could Dr Karunanidhi stomach Law Minister Bhardwaj's declaration that Rama is as certain as the Himalayas. He had to counter that, saying that Rama is a Himalayan lie! This is how the DMK retaliation started, almost mindlessly.

In his speech at Erode on September 15, the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister gave vent to his anger at being bowled over twice, with an unbelievable tirade against Rama himself. "Who is Rama? Where is the proof for his existence? Where did he learn engineering to build the Rama Sethu? Is it not the return of the dark days of superstition to cite a non-existent Rama to block a development project?" He was unstoppable.

The campaign against Rama which started in Erode reached its peak, five days later, on September 20 at Chennai with the Chief Minister telling the media that Rama's biographer Valmiki himself had depicted Rama as a drunkard after all. Later, obviously feeling that he had dwarfed the debate to a slum-grade language, Dr Karunanidhi hastily issued a press release by dropping the word drunkard and saying that Valmiki had said that Rama had taken 'somapana'.

But, according to those who have read Valmiki Ramayana in Sanskrit, which Dr Karunanidhi could not have done, nowhere does Valmiki say that Rama took somapana; on the contrary the biographer says that Rama and Lakshmana were angry with Sugreeva over his drinking habit. But, this being not the place for a debate on the issue, now back to the sequence.

But unfortunately only after questioning Rama's existence and His engineering skills to build the bridge to Sri Lanka and abusing Him as a drunkard, has the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister come out with a stunning statement that he had never opposed the realignment of the Sethusamudram canal so as not to disturb or destroy the Rama Sethu. Why the hell all the dispute in the court and the struggle on the streets over Rama Sethu and Rama were for then?

Had he made this statement six months back, why even a month back, the Rama Sethu would not have become a national issue, Rama would not have been dragged into it and then into inelegant war of words leading to Rama's character assassination. The ridiculous issue of whether He existed or not issue notwithstanding, Sri Rama has always been and is still a reality in India and for its people. He is perhaps the only personality who functioned from the deeper Indian consciousness of the distant past and influenced modern politics.

Just take two illustrative examples. First, Rama's influence over Mahatma Gandhi, the most powerful political leader India ever produced, was total. Gandhiji never felt shy and, in fact, he ever felt proud of expressing his obsession with Rama and repeatedly acknowledged the hold of Rama over his heart and mind. He saw Rama as the remedy to all ills of humans, including physical illness! Thus, Rama publicly guided Gandhiji's every move.

Next, after the country attained freedom, the biggest mass movement centred on Rama and a temple for him at his birth place in Ayodhya exposed the pseudo-secular polity, shifted the political paradigm and effectively terminated the one-party rule at the Centre.

Yes, the invisible Rama is the most powerful political force in India. It is foolish to see in Him just a religious icon. His tremendous power over Indians stems from the belief-cumfact that He is an illustrious example for life on earth. Whether He is a historic reality or not is irrelevant to the social and political theatre. That He is a political reality is what is relevant. So long as the DMK was a frog in the well, its inelegant description of Hindu Gods, including Rama, had its echo within Tamil Nadu and never attracted national attention. But with the coalition politics exposing the DMK and Dr Karunanidhi to national politics, the political culture and idiom of the DMK are also exposed to the national audience. The result is for all to see. Thanks to Dr Karunanidhi's tirade against Him in Erode and in Chennai, Rama seems to be back in politics in Delhi, via Bhopal of course! Rama's omnipresence is self-evident. Rama has seen hundreds of rulers and leaders of this nation come and go. He will see many more hundreds - believers like Gandhiji or nonbelievers like Karunanidhi included and will Himself remain as the single most powerful political force in India. This is where the usually alert Dr Karunanidhi failed to read the power of Rama over the people. He indulged in the usual DMK patented anti- Hindu idioms against Rama without understanding their impact in national politics where today, and unlike in the past, he is very much present and what he says is noticed.

QED: Unless Dr Karunanidhi dumps his anti-Rama tirade, the UPA may have to dump the DMK. In default of either, the UPA may have to contest the next elections against Rama himself.

Courtesy: www.redif.com, September 23, 2007