PROTESTS ACROSS KERALA LAUNCHED
BY
HINDU RIGHT WING ACTIVISTS
&
BHARATIYA JANATA PARTY
Thiruvananthapuram/Sabarimala: Cloaked in black veils and shrouded in wee hour darkness, two women of menstruating age made history Wednesday by stepping into Sabarimala temple of Lord Ayyappa defying threats from Hindu activists.
The women – Kanakadurga and Bindu – aged 44 and 42, entered the precincts guarded by police three months after the Supreme Court’s historic judgment lifting the ban on entry of girls and women between 10 and 50 years of age into the shrine. The women, draped in black and faces covered in veils, entered the temple at 3:38 am, a day after 35 lakh women stood shoulder-to-shoulder across the national highways in Kerala, creating a 620 km-long human ‘wall’ from the northern end of Kasaragod to the southern tip in Thiruvananthapuram as part of the state-sponsored initiative to uphold gender equality.
As the news spread from the hill shrine, protests erupted at several places, with Hindu right-wing activists blocking highways and forcing closure of shops and markets. Sabarimala Karma Samithi, an umbrella outfit of various pro-Hindutva groups, spearheading protests against the Supreme Court’s September 28 verdict, and Antarrashtriya Hindu Parishad (AHP), have called a state-wide shutdown Thursday.
Soon after local TV news channels aired visuals of the two women trekking to the hilltop temple, Chief Minister Piranayi Vijayan, whose Left Front government is weathering a storm of protests by hardline Ayyappa devotees over his determination to enforce the apex court verdict, announced they had offered prayers at the shrine. “Earlier, women were not able to enter the temple due to certain hurdles. They may have entered the shrine today because they would not have faced any issues. It is a fact that the women have entered Sabarimala. Police have given them security,’’ a visibly pleased Vijayan said. The development did not go down well with the temple authorities, with the head priest ordering devotees out of the premises and closing doors to the sanctum sanctorum. He performed a ‘‘purification’’ ritual for an hour before the doors were opened again.
The women were whisked away from the temple by police soon after ‘darshan’. They were brought to Pathanamthitta from where they left for an undisclosed destination, officials said. Police contingents have been posted at the residences of Bindu, a college lecturer and CPI(ML) activist from Kozhikode district’s Koyilandy, and Kanakadurga, a civil supplies department employee from Angadipuram in Malappuram.
Scores of women had made valiant attempts to visit the shrine since the Supreme Court verdict but were forced to retreat, menaced by hardline Ayyappa devotees.
Bindu later said the duo faced no protests from Ayyappa devotees, either during the climb or while offering prayers.
“Unlike in the past, there were no namajapa (frenzied chanting of Ayyappa mantras) protests when we climbed the hills this morning. Only devotees were there and they did not stop us or stage any protests. Police offered us protection from Pamba, the foothhills,’’ she told a TV channel.