2009 Poll Prospects And Alignments

[acharya]

<b>The Ram rift a major threat to UPA alliance</b>
CNN-IBN
TimePublished on Monday , September 17, 2007 at 00:08 in Nation section
New Delhi: The cracks in the UPA have begun to show. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, M Karunanidhi, has minced no words in deploring the Centre's flip-flop on the Sethusamudram project.

Karunanidhi has done this even though he knows that the decision to withdraw the controversial ASI affidavit was taken on Congress President, Sonia Gandhi's instructions.

Says Karunanidhi, "They (the UPA Government) first said Ram was a fiction of public imagination and then the next day, they refuted that same claim. What kind of self-respecting Government would do that?"

And the DMK — the Congress's biggest ally — has its own reasons to be worried. The Sethusamudram project has been a longstanding poll promise of the DMK, and any rollback now would result in tremendous loss of face for Karunanidhi especially because his bete noire Jayalalithaa is against the project.

But in the north of the Vindhyas, regional parties are worried the issue could give the BJP a chance to revive its fortunes.

Meanwhile, the Congress' other major ally, the NCP, too is in no doubt that the Centre erred in denying Ram's existence.

Says Civil Aviation Minister, Praful Patel, "Shri Ram is an integral part of Indian culture and history. We call for strict action against those that have played with nation's sentiments."

The coalition which stood united on the nuclear deal is now showing signs of coming apart. The Ram Sethu has exposed the divisions within the UPA as never before.