Panaji, Sep 23
Ravana was born in Noida unlike late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi's belief that the Lankan king was a Dravidian like him, BJP MP Subramanian Swamy said here on Sunday.

Speaking at an event in South Goa, Swamy claimed that contrary to popular notions, Ravana, the villain in Indian epic Ramayana, was born in the village of Bisrakh in Noida, located in the National Capital Region.

"And Rama was a hate figure for these people because he was from the north and he killed Ravana who was from Lanka and therefore Dravidian. Well, Ravana was not from Lanka. He was born in a village near Delhi, it is called Bisrakh. You can still go and see it. There are big billboards. The area is called Noida...," Swamy said.

He said that Ravana performed 'tapas' (penance) at Manasarovar, after which Lord Shiva bestowed a boon upon him, following which Ravana went to Lanka and defeated his cousin Kuber to eventually become the 'Lanka Naresh'.

"And he was a Brahmin, incidentally... He practiced, he was a scholar of Sama Veda and Karunanidhi thought he is like him. And so, Karunanidhi was against anything I did which didn't suit the Dravidian concocted notions," Swamy said, adding that the 'divide' between northern India as an Aryan domain and the Dravidian south was a notion implanted in the Indian subconscience by the British colonists.

"Therefore, I say to you that first of all, recognise that we all are one people. We did not come from some faraway place, as the British wrote in their history books...," he said.

"It was taught to us through schools, through Bishops, the Christian clergy and soon enough it became an accepted gospel."

The Indian rupee is falling because the currency is exiting the country in the form of black money, BJP MP Subramanian Swamy said on Sunday.

"The problem of falling rupee has got nothing to do with US. It has got to do with the fact that a large amount of black money is now leaving the country. When there is an oversupply of rupee to the dollar, the value is bound to go down," Swamy said at a public function in South Goa.

He said that the dollar would continue to rule the roost in global economy "as long as the US (is) the most developed country in the world. The day they cease to be, some other currency will come. At the moment there is no challenge to the dollar".

The BJP-led government at the Centre is currently under fire due to the decreasing value of the Indian rupee against the US dollar.

Ravana was born in Noida village: BJP MP Swamy