The day-long shutdown called by the BJP and Sabarimala Protection Council to protest the baton charge by police and violence at the base camps of the Sabarimala temple crippled normal life in Kerala on Thursday as the hilltop shrine continued to remain inaccessible to women.
The situation remained tense in Pambha and Nilakkal, the base camps where devotees gather before trekking to the 800-year-old temple in Pathanamthitta district, as the shrine dedicated to Lord Ayyappa opened for the second day for the five-day pilgrimage. Pambha and Nilakkal had witnessed widespread violence on Wednesday.
The temple opened on Wednesday at 5pm for the first time after the September 28 Supreme Court ruling allowing entry of women aged between 10 and 50. As part of the convention, the temple opens for five days on the first of every Malayalam month and will remain open till October 22.
Many areas on the way to the temple also remained tense. Police resorted to action after angry protesters attacked media personnel especially women journalists. At least three women journalists were attacked on Wednesday and their vehicles stoned by a mob.
The worried district administration later clamped restrictions prohibiting the gathering of more than four people under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) in four areas, including the two base camps, in the district to avoid re-grouping of protestors.
“We were keeping utmost restraint. Police were forced to intervene when some protestors started attacking media men,” Pathanamthitta district collector PB Nooh said.
Nooh also said that Section 144 will be in force till Friday midnight. He added police would provide security to any woman who wished to go and pray and that the ongoing pilgrimage won’t be affected.
Shops and business establishments remained closed and government vehicles were off the road throughout the state. Stone-pelting was reported from many areas and the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation bore the maximum brunt.
Transport officials said at least 40 buses were damaged in the attack. Many pilgrims were stranded after the corporation suspended bus services fearing attacks.
Suhasini Raj, a Delhi-based New York Times journalist, faced angry devotees who lay on her path at the halfway point at Marakootum as she tried to trek to the hilltop in the morning along with her friend, saying she wanted to cover the event as part of her assignment. The devotees asked her to go over their bodies. As police appeared helpless, she retreated.
She said she was stoned and verbally abused by the mob while talking to the media in Pambha later.
“I thought things will be smooth after the verdict. I was besieged by a violent mob. They heckled me badly and tried to manhandle me. I wanted to avoid bloodshed,” Raj told reporters before leaving for Kochi.
Blame game
Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan accused outfits affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (BJP) for making the peaceful temple a flashpoint to suit their political agenda even as the Bharatiya Janata Party held the state government fully responsible for the present unrest.
“RSS goons were behind the serial violence. We will not allow them to take the law into their hands and make Sabarimala a battleground,” the state temple affairs minister Kadakampally Surendran said.
The state unit president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Sreedharan Pillai blamed the minister, who was camping at the hilltop temple, of instigating violence. The party has sought a judicial probe into the violence.
BJP Yuva Morcha workers defied the prohibitory orders in the morning and courted arrested in Nilakkal. They reached the base camp minutes after BJP’s state unit president Pillai announced in the state capital that his party will defy prohibitory orders.
He said the government had deliberately clamped Section 144 in base camps to wean teeming devotees.
Of the 30 protesters, who were arrested on Wednesday, 20 were produced before the magistrate court in Ranni. They were remanded to two weeks judicial custody. The arrested activists included Rahul Eashwar, the right-wing activist who is also the grandson of a former head priest or tantri.
‘We respect women’
The head priest of the shrine Rajeevaru Kandararu made a plea to maintain peace.
“Nobody can indulge violence in the name of Lord Ayyappa. It will be a big disservice to the deity,” he said.
The priest appealed to the women from the reproductive age, who were restricted as per the centuries-old traditions of the shrine, not to come to Sannidhanam or the temple complex and create a problem.
“We respect the verdict of the Supreme Court. But, considering the sentiments of devotees and the tradition and rituals of the shrine, I humbly request you (young women) not to come to Sabarimala,” Rajeevaru said.
He also dismissed reports that the tantri family had planned to close down the Lord Ayyappa temple if young women entered it to offer prayers.
“We have never said that the temple will be closed if women of the traditionally barred age group enter there. It is our duty and responsibility to carry out the monthly poojas and other rituals. We will not break the custom,” he said.
He also said Sabarimala is a place where women are respected. The second major deity at the hillock shrine complex is ‘Malikappurathamma,’ a goddess, he pointed out.
The tantri said it was yet to ascertain how the violence had erupted at the prayer meeting protest. He also urged everyone not to turn the temple complex, the ‘poonkavanam’ (garden) of Lord Ayyappa, into a war zone.
(With agency inputs)
First Published: Oct 18, 2018 18:13 IST
