Sabarimala still on edge, women kept out

THE SITUATION WAS TENSE IN PAMBA AND NILAKKAL, THE BASE CAMPS, AS THE TEMPLE IN PATHANAMTHITTA DIST OPENED FOR THE SECOND DAY OF A FIVEDAY PILGRIMAGE

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Normal life ground to a halt in Kerala on Thursday, with shops and businesses shutting and government vehicles staying off the roads in response to the call for a general strike sponsored by opponents of the Supreme Court judgment throwing open the Sabarimala temple to women of all ages.

The hilltop shrine, meanwhile, remained inaccessible to women devotees for the second day.

The day-long shutdown was called by the Sabarimala Protection Movement and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to protest a baton charge on Wednesday by the police at the base camps where pilgrims gather before starting their final trek to reach the sanctum sanctorum of the shrine to Lord Ayyapppa.

The situation was tense in Pamba and Nilakkal, the base camps, as the temple in Pathanamthitta district opened for the second day of a five-day pilgrimage. Widespread violence took place in Pambha and Nilakkal on Wednesday as traditionalists prevented the entry of women, intimidated journalists and clashed with the police.

Tension has been brewing in Kerala since the Supreme Court on September 28 ruled that the temple should be opened to women of all ages, annulling a centuries-old tradition of the temple that denied the right of worship to female devotees aged between 10 and 50 years, or those of the menstruating age.

Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan accused Sangh Parivar groups – those affiliated to the Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) – of making the peaceful temple a flashpoint to suit the right-wing political agenda.

The BJP, of which the RSS is the ideological mentor, held the state government responsible for the unrest.