Why Centre is deliberately delaying the Ram Setu case in Supreme Court?
Indefatigable BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on Thursday approached Supreme Court reminding that Narendra Modi government has not yet taken the decision on declaring Ram Sethu as a national heritage monument while promising to the apex court in taking the decision in two weeks in January. The Supreme Court agreed to list for hearing a PIL filed by Swamy seeking a direction to the Centre to declare the Ram Sethu as a national heritage monument.
A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice P S Narasimha took note of the submissions of the BJP leader that so far no decision has been taken on the issue and hence, the PIL be listed for hearing now.“We will list it after the Constitution bench matters get over,” the CJI said.
A five-judge constitution bench headed by the CJI is seized of various matters, including the Delhi-Centre row over control of services in the national capital.
The top court, earlier on January 19, was told by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta that the Centre was looking into the issue pertaining to declaring the Ram Sethu as a national heritage monument. The court had asked the Centre to take a decision on the issue and granted Swamy the liberty to move before it again if he is dissatisfied and disposed of his interim application on the issue.
“Learned Solicitor General states that a process is currently underway in the Ministry of Culture. He states that the petitioner (Swamy) may submit additional communication if he may so wish,” the bench had said. “I do not want to meet anybody… We are in the same party, it was there in our manifesto. Let them decide in six weeks or whatever,” Swamy had said.
“I will come again,” the BJP leader had said. Swamy had said that in 2019, the then Culture Minister Prahlad Patel had called a meeting on the issue and had made a recommendation for declaring the Ram Sethu as a national heritage monument. “The issue is that they have to say– ‘yes‘ or ‘no‘,” he had said. The law officer had said that the government was looking into it.
After the Court hearing on Thursday, Subramanian Swamy expressed his anger against Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not taking the decision to declare Rama Sethu as a national heritage monument for the past nine years of coming to power. He tweeted:
Why is the Modi govt sabotaging Ram Setu being declared a Heritage Monument? After promising to declare within 2 weeks the Govt has not even after 4 weeks.
— Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) February 16, 2023
Prior to this, the top court had said it would take up the plea of Swamy in the second week of February.
The case of Ram Sethu
The BJP leader had submitted that he had already won the first round of the litigation in which the Centre accepted the existence of Ram Sethu. Swamy had raised the issue of declaring the Ram Sethu a national monument in his PIL against the controversial Sethusamudram Ship Channel project, initiated by the UPA-I government. The matter reached the apex court, which in 2007 stayed the project to break Ram Sethu to create a shipping channel.
The Centre later said it had considered the “socio-economic disadvantages” of the project and was willing to explore another route to the shipping channel project without damaging the Ram Sethu. On November 13, 2019, the apex court granted the Centre six weeks to clarify its stand on the Ram Sethu. It had also granted Swamy liberty to approach the court if the response of the Centre was not filed.
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Modi government should take back all concerns and approve Ram Setu as a national heritage immediately. But the way this govt is trying to please “others” by taking back the cow-hugging and cancelling Hanuman fig on HAL – indicates they have taken Hindu votes and concerns for granted.