Buddhadeb questions existence of Lord Ram

Kolkata: On the backfoot over Nandigram, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has stoked another controversy by questioning the existence of Lord Ram.

"Ram was born in the imagination of poets and Ram Sethu is a natural formation under the sea," Bhatacharjee told a meeting to mark the 15th anniversary of the demolition of Babri Masjid on Friday.

He said the Sethu Samudram project was being opposed by the Sangh Parivar on religious ground, but it was vital for economic development of the region.

Reacting to Bhattacharjee’s remarks, state BJP general secretary Rahul Sinha on Friday said the remarks were an attempt to appease the Muslim vote bank after the fiasco in Nandigram.

"Ram is a matter of faith and Communists had always hated godmen. Even they spread calumnies against Tagore and Swami Vivekananda", he said.

Bhattacharjee’s remarks came months after Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi’s similar plainspeak on the existence of Lord Ram which had generated a country-wide controversy.

Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com