Indians do have a fascination for ‘white skin/complexion’ which is apparently a hangover of the colonial era as the white-skinned British ruled the country with iron hand for more than 100 years. When something is said by a white-skinned person (say American, Briton or a European), Indians tend to believe that the statement might have at least some realism in it.

That the ‘Sethu Bridge’, witnessed in satellite photographs focusing beneath the sea-water linking India and Sri Lanka wasn’t a work of an artist’s illusion but a real structure has been reiterated time and again by the BJP and other Hindutva organizations in the past. Those who didn’t believe it earlier have started doing so after an American TV channel broadcast a video stating that the bride is ‘real’.

A promotional video released by a scientific television channel has asserted that the Sethu Bridge (which is referred to in Hindus’ epic Ramayanai as the bridge constructed by Lord Hunuman’s army of monkeys to enable Lord Ram to cross over to Lanka to wage battle against monster king Raavan) beneath the sea is a ‘real structure’. Also referred to as Adam’s Bridge, the video has been watched by more than a million.

Union Textiles Minister Smriti Irani has shared the video on her Twitter account. “The stones used to construct the bridge are at least 7,000 years old; there are some sand dunes along the 30-mile long bridge but they formed only after the brideg was constructed. The sand dunes are only 4,000 years old,” the video said.