Four women, all from Andhra Pradesh, were Sunday stopped on the pathway to the Sabarimala temple by Ayyappa devotees and forced to return as protests against the Supreme Court order opening the hilltop shrine to women of all ages continued across Kerala and outside.
Since the temple opened on Wednesday for the first time after the apex court order, protesters have stopped 10 women aged less than 50 from entering it. Out of them, most were journalists or activists.
In the first incident on Sunday, two women, said to be in their 40s, were part of a pilgrim group visiting temples in Kerala and claimed they did not know the customs of the Lord Ayyappa temple, PTI quoted the police as saying.
As the protesters stopped the women at the Pambha base camp, police escorted them to the control room.
“They were part of a pilgrimage group from Andhra. They had been to other temples also and didn’t know of special rituals in Sabarimala Temple,” inspector general of police S Sreejith told media, adding the women gave a written statement that they did not want to proceed. They were taken back to Nilakkal, where their vehicle was parked.
Following this, protesters found another woman on the path to the temple and stopped her too, asking her to go back upon checking her Aadhaar card, which stated she was 47, reported IANS. Police reached the spot and took the woman, who felt a bit uneasy amid the ruckus, to a clinic. She subsequently did not proceed.
Another woman, who reached the hilltop on a palanquin, was stopped by protesters about a kilometre from the temple. As the protesters surrounded her, police took her downhill to the Pambha base camp.
However, the hilltop and base camps were relatively peaceful on Sunday compared to the previous days. The Nilakkal and Pambha base camps had witnessed violent clashes on Thursday and Friday.
On Saturday, protestors stopped 52-year-old Latha Kumar, a teacher from Tamil Nadu’s Trichy who was on her second pilgrimage, right outside the temple, alleging she was below 50 years of age. She was however allowed in after showing her Aadhaar card. Woman Dalit leader SP Manju (38), who was planning to visit the shrine Saturday, was asked by police to put her plans on hold following heavy rain and later decided to return.
Though Hyderabad-based woman journalist Kavitha Jakkal and activist Rehana Fathima, escorted by 100 policemen, reached right up to the temple Friday, they could not go in as devotees and priests blocked their way and the tantri (head priest) warned he would close the temple if they entered. Another woman, Mary Sweety, who works in the Middle East, did not go as police refused to provide protection.
Madhavi, a devotee from Andhra and New York Times reporter Suhasini Raj had to abandon their trips midway Thursday after protests.
Meanwhile, Fathima, whose house was vandalised when she was on her to Sabarimala, has been expelled from the Muslim community for “hurting the sentiments of lakhs of Hindu devotees”, the Kerala Muslim Jama’ath Council president A Poonkunju said in a press statement, reported PTI.
The Travancore Dewasaom Board (TDB), which runs the temple, is expected to submit a report to the Supreme Court on the prevailing situation on the ground and seek more time to implement the verdict. Similarly, 20-odd review petitions challenging the verdict are also coming up before the apex court.
Admitting the Sabarimala pilgrim season beginning next month was going to be a challenging one for them, Kerala police chief Loknath Behera said a review of the alleged police lapses and excesses while handling the issues related to the temple will be conducted after shrine closes on Monday.
The BJP and other organizations, like the Sabarimala Karma Samithi, protesting the verdict, took out ‘nama japa’ (hymn chanting) rallies outside all police stations in the state to protest the crackdown on their activists.
BJP state president PS Sreedharan Pillai said if the state assembly passes a unanimous resolution, the Centre can explore the possibility of enacting an ordinance to protect the shrine’s customs. “The state government is fully responsible for the present situation. It was in a tearing hurry to implement the verdict angering devotees. The Centre can intervene only after the state assembly raises such a demand,” he said.
He also alleged that even members of the ruling Left were opposing the bid to break the shrine’s long-standing customs. Communist Party of India (Marxist) politburo member S Ramachandran Pillai however said the protesters did not have the support of the Kerala society.
In Chennai, Hindu Makkal Katchi activists held a protest outside the Anna Nagar Ayyappa Temple against women who attempted to visit SabarimalaTemple. “They are not clean. They spoiled the sanctity of celibacy of Lord Ayyappa. They’re not devotees. They’ve come for publicity,” said one of the protesters, ANI reported.
First Published: Oct 21, 2018 19:14 IST
