Kerala govt’s allparty meet on Sabarimala fails
STANDOFF Waste of time, say Oppn Cong, BJP as state insists it’s ‘dutybound’ to carry out SC order; CM to meet temple custodians
An all-party meeting called by Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan to resolve the Sabarimala stand-off failed to make headway on Thursday with the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) staging a walkout after Vijayan stood firm that he was “dutybound” to implement the Supreme Court order allowing women of all ages entry into the temple.
The annual Sabarimala pilgrimage season starts on Friday.
The Opposition has been demanding that Kerala’s Left Front government back down from its stand of implementing the apex court’s September 28 order. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear review petitions against its verdict on January 22 but made it clear that it has not stayed the original order.
In Thursday’s meeting, the Opposition parties sprang the demand that implementation of the top court order be put off till January 22. But Vijayan turned it down, saying that since the verdict had not been stayed, the state had no option but to allow women of all ages entry into the shrine.
With no consensus emerging after nearly three hours of talks, Opposition parties walked out.
“Now the chief minister will be responsible for any eventuality at the temple,” Congress leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala said after the meeting, blaming Vijayan’s “adamant” stand and refusal to ‘compromise’ for the walkout. “The government has wasted a golden opportunity.”
State BJP chief PS Sreedharan Pillai, too, pinned the blame on Vijayan. “The chief minister wants to make Sabarimala a battleground,” he said. “We wasted more than two hours.”
On September 28,the apex court ruled by a 4-1 majority that no woman can be stopped from entering Sabarimala temple, ending a traditional ban on the entry
THIRUVANANTHPURAM:
of women between 10 and 50 years of age into the shrine. Women of reproductive age were barred from entering the over 800-yearold shrine in south Kerala’s Pathanamthitta district because its presiding deity, Lord Ayyappa, is considered a celibate.
Protests by traditionalists and Opposition activists have prevented any woman aged between 10 and 50 from entering the shrine.
The chief minister has decided to reach out to the Sabarimala temple’s chief priest’s family and the erstwhile royal family of Pandalam, considered the custodians of the hilltop shrine.