Two officials suspended over Hindu god row

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The government has suspended two directors at its archaeology agency for their role in a Supreme Court affidavit which suggested Hindu gods did not exist, officials said on Saturday.

The row has erupted over government plans to build a canal in an area where Hindus believe their god, Lord Ram, constructed a bridge-like feature thousands of years ago.

Ambika Soni, the culture minister who confirmed the suspensions, said she was prepared to resign over the matter if asked to by the prime minister or the party president.

"If the prime minister of India ... would feel that I am culpable and want me to resign, it won't take me a minute to do so," she told reporters.

On Wednesday the government filed an affidavit which said some of Hinduism's most important religious texts were not evidence that the gods ever existed.

The next day, after its Hindu-nationalist political opponents accused the government of blasphemy, H.R. Bharadwaj, the law minister, said the controversial parts of the affidavit would be withdrawn.

He added that India's officially secular government would never doubt the existence of Lord Ram.

The culture ministry has since suspended a director and an assistant director at the Archaeological Survey of India, which prepared the affidavit, while it investigates what happened, Soni said.

The minister said the officials had ignored some of the revisions she wanted made after seeing a draft of the affidavit.