Mumbai: And, now, Muslims say it’s their bridge.
Even as the government is expected to ask for more time next week to explain the cultural significance of the Adam’s Bridge (Ram Sethu), the claims on the coral walkway linking India and Sri Lanka continue to mount.
But this latest claim comes with a twist: the Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam (TMMK), generally seen as a front for the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), says it wants the planned dredging of the channel to continue—in the name of national interest and local development.
“Now, it seems that the project might stop,” says T. Ali, TMMK president in Rames-waram. “Muslims believe this is Adam’s Bridge. Thousands of years ago, Adam walked from Colombo to Saudi Arabia over this bridge.”
There are twin graves in Rameswaram called the Habil and Qabil dargah; Habil-Qabil are the Islamic names for Abel and Cain of the Old Testament. The 60-foot long graves are maintained by relatives of former president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.
While Muslims and Christians both believe in the Old Testament, it is not clear if local Christians also believe that Adam’s Bridge belonged to Adam, the first man according to Christians.
Ali, for one, says that though this is a part of Islamic faith, “we are not selfish. We are presenting our heritage for national development. If progress means we destroy Adam’s Bridge, it is okay for us”.
Few public projects in India have seen themselves morph as much as the Rs2,600 crore Sethusamudram project. It has already created unlikely allies and enemies. It has become a rally cry for the Vishwa Hindu Parishad that called the government’s project an attack on Hinduism; some Hindus believe Ram built the bridge. Then, it rammed into financial troubles, becoming an acute embarrassment for the UPA government.
On Thursday night, after high-level meetings among Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, shipping minister T.R. Baalu, culture and tourism minister Ambika Soni and external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee, the government decided it will ask the Supreme Court for more time to present its affidavit detailing alternatives to dredging the bridge and its cultural importance.
In some ways, the government’s stalling of a decision or reaction has all but ended the project. Already, long before Hindus marched or declared strikes in the name of Ram, the project was described as one in financial dire straits.
Today, a lone watchman stands outside Sethu Samudram Corp., the firm set up to oversee the dredging, but its offices are empty. All contracts with local boatmen have been cancelled, and the hulking dredger ships that dominated the gulf until last October are gone. In Rameswaram, where the India side of the bridge rests, locals have already been spending much of their time discussing their fate.