Yogi likens Sabarimala to Ayodhya

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday drew parallels between Ayodhya in his state and Kerala’s Sabarimala Temple. He said there were “many attempts to insult believers” at both holy places and asked them to start an Ayodhya-type agitation at Kerala’s hill temple “to keep their faith intact”.

Protests and violence have rocked Kerala since the Supreme Court’s verdict on September 28 allowed women of menstruating age to worship at the Sabarimala Temple. Hindu groups have been opposing the verdict citing the celibate nature of the shrine’s presiding deity, Lord Ayyappan.

“There are many similarities between Lord Ram’s birthplace of Ayodhya and that of Lord Ayyappa’s. Some forces are trying to insult Hindus at both holy places. In Sabarimala, the whole country is with believers, who are struggling to keep their belief intact,” he said in his address to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s boothlevel office-bearers. The agitation for a Ram temple in place of the demolished Babri Mosque in Ayodhya propelled the BJP to power at the Centre in the 1990s. It has been trying to make inroads into states like Kerala as it has peaked in its western and northern strongholds like UP. Adityanath criticised the judiciary saying certain verdicts often ignore believers’ sentiments. “In Ayodhya, we have carried out a continuous struggle to retrieve Lord Ram’s birthplace. If age-old customs and beliefs are ruined, we need an Ayodhya-like stir in Sabarimala also,” he said.