BJP Should Apologise For 'Misleading' People On Ram Setu: Chhattisgarh Chief Minister

The Union government should apologise for "misleading" the country on the Ram Setu issue, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has said, adding that when the Congress-led UPA government stated the same thing in the past, it was dubbed as "anti-Ram". Mr Baghel was speaking to reporters at a helipad here on Saturday.

Responding to a question about Union Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh's statement in Parliament on Ram Setu, Mr Baghel said, "When the Congress government (at the Centre) said the same thing, we were branded as anti-Ram." "The government of these so-called devotees of Lord Ram stated in Parliament that there is no solid evidence of it (Ram Setu), so now in which category they should be put? They should apologise for misleading people," the Chief Minister said. 

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) also did not comment on the government's stand, and had they been real devotees of Ram, they would have criticised the government, the Congress leader added.

Replying to a question on whether the existence of Ram Setu or the submerged city of Dwarka can be proven through satellite images, Union minister Singh said in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday that Indian satellites have acquired high resolution images over Ram Setu region connecting India and Sri Lanka.

However, satellite images cannot provide direct information about the origin and age of this structure, he had said.

"Through space technology, we have been able to discover pieces and islands, some kind of limestone shoals, which, of course, can't be accurately said to be remnants or parts of a bridge. But they do have a certain amount of continuity in location through which some surmises can be drawn. So, what I am trying to say in short is that it is difficult to actually pinpoint the exact structure that existed there, but there is some kind of an indication, direct or indirect, that those structures have existed," the Union minister had stated.

Earlier on Saturday, Chief Minister Baghel unveiled the trophy of the FIH Men's Hockey World Cup during a welcome ceremony held at his residence in Raipur. The world cup will start in Odisha from January 13.

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