Rama Setu: DMK Youth Wing's plan for Setu Channel

R.K. Radhakrishnan and P. Sudhakar

Tirunelveli (Tamil Nadu) : The Youth Wing of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam will work out a road map on the Sethusamudram propaganda strategy following Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi’s call to the youth to mobilise public support for the project.

Asked when the Youth Wing would begin its campaign, Mr. Stalin said consultations would be held once he reached Chennai.

Mr. Stalin was on the Tirunelveli Medical College grounds on Monday, the venue of the weekend youth conference, to thank the support staff and partymen who had toiled for its success. "I will have to consult leaders including the Chief Minister and then we will decide how best to launch the campaign," he said. Mr. Karunanidhi wanted the DMK youth to counter the misinformation campaign about the project. He had accused the State unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party of ranking up the issue of Rama Sethu with the sole purpose of bringing development work to a halt. The Chief Minister urged the Youth Wing to counter the propaganda with scientific facts to convince the people. Once people were for the project the task of making it a reality was much simpler. Referring to the cases in the courts on the issue, Mr. Karunanidhi reasoned that the courts did not block development schemes that helped thousands of people.

The campaign itself would be a huge task for the Youth Wing because it involved training of hundreds of volunteers to speak on the issue in more than 12,000 village panchayats across the State. Taking scientific evidence to villages would mean carrying video and satellite images of the Adams Bridge area too. "This is the reason why we need a detailed plan of action. Though the Chief Minister wants the campaign launched today [Monday] we will need some time to get things in place," a party functionary and Youth Wing leader explained.

Asked about the Chief Minister’s comments at the conference, Mr. Stalin said the fact that Mr. Karunanidhi had wanted the Youth Wing, headed by him, to take up the Sethusamudram propaganda itself was a huge responsibility. "Don’t you think taking this message across the people is a very big responsibility?" he asked and added: "Perhaps this could be the large responsibility that I will have to shoulder." It was not merely positions in government that were important for people like him; responsibilities like these were as important, he said.

Source: hindu.com