Protests intensify in Kerala after court ruling on women
BJP LEADER ACCUSES CHIEF MINISTER OF ATTEMPTING TO DESTROY SABARIMALA TEMPLE
When India’s Supreme Court ruled last week that women had an equal right for entry into the Sabarimala temple, the Communist Party of India Marxist-led Left Democratic Front government in Kerala had hardly expected a mass movement on the ground against the verdict.
As it has turned out, hundreds of thousands of conservative Hindus in the state, mostly women, have turned out in protest against the verdict, fanned by support from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state leadership which is batting for maintaining tradition at the temple.
The Sabarimala Ayyappa temple in Kerala’s Pathanamthitta district had been a male preserve until the apex court ruled in favour of gender equality.
State Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has stated that the government had to follow the court directive, saying it will ensure protection for women pilgrims who turn up at the temple when the pilgrimage season commences later this month.
Vijayan even quoted examples of questionable tradition like the one that existed in the erstwhile Travancore kingdom of throwing baby girls to crocodiles, and the tradition ■ of barring lower caste people from the Vaikom temple until a century ago, to emphasise how blind adherence to tradition need not be good.
‘Creating a battlefield’
However, traditional Hindus and the BJP state leadership have been critical of the government’s stand. BJP state president P.S. Sreedharan Pillai alleged that the government was “creating a battlefield” in the Sabarimala issue, adding that “the chief minister who is a Stalin-worshipper is attempting to destroy Sabarimala”.
Pillai has also warned that the protests against women’s entry into the temple will go ahead even if a review petition filed against the apex court’s ruling is dismissed.
The BJP state president criticised the decision of Congress not to explicitly protest in the Sabarimala issue. He said the Congress had “cheated the faithful midway”, and alleged that the Congress decision was according to discreet understanding between the CPM and the Congress at the national level.
In contrast, the general secretary of the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam, Vellapally Natesan, backed the chief minister, saying Vijayan had “an open mind” on the Sabarimala issue.
He said a government could not go against a court order, and said women in the 10-50 age-group should decide on their own not to go to the temple.