Sabarimala opens amid row over women's entry

Sabarimala: Amid tight security, the gates of the Lord Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala were thrown open on Saturday for the two-month long Mandala-Makaravilakku pilgrimage season.

The police sent back at least 10 women devotees, including some from  Andhra Pradesh below the age of 50 after checking their identity cards on Saturday afternoon. The AP women had come with a 15-member group from Vijayawada and they told the police that they were unaware of the restrictions.

Kandararu Mahesh Mohanararu opened the sanctum sanctorum of the temple at 5 pm, and performed pujas, as hundreds of devotees from Kerala, Tamil Nadu and other neighbouring states thronged the shrine located in a reserve forest of the Western Ghats in Pathanamthitta district of the state.

Devotees, who were allowed to trek the hill from 2 PM, climbed the sacred 18 steps to the temple with the “irumudikettu” (sacred bag containing the offerings to the Lord) after the priests performed the “padi pooja”.

Last year the state and temple precincts had witnessed frenzied protests by right wing outfits and BJP workers after the LDF government decided to implement the Supreme court’s verdict of September 28, 2018, allowing women of all age groups to offer prayers at the shrine.

However, this year, even though the top court has not stayed its verdict on entry of young women into the shrine while posting various petitions on the matter to a larger bench, the government is exercising caution.

Devaswom minister Kadakampally Surendran has made it clear that Sabarimala is not a place for activists to display their activism and said the government would not encourage such women who want to visit the shrine for publicity. Those who want to visit the temple can procure a court order to enter the temple, he has said. Punnala Sreekumar, general secretary of the Renaissance Values Protection Committee, criticised Mr Surendran’s stand and said his statement that women who intend to visit Sabarimala should obtain a special order from the Supreme Court is “anti-constitutional”. The V.S. Achuthanandan government in 2007 and the present Pinarayi Vijayan government had given an affidavit in the Supreme Court in favour of the entry of young women. “By deviating from the stand now, the political leadership is justifying the allegations of UDF,” he added.

While Mr Vijayan has been guarded in his reaction to the Supreme Court verdict and the entry of young women, Mr Surendran and law minister A.K. Balan have been more vociferous.  The latter had termed the verdict “highly complicated” which posed more problems for the government. “There is no question of taking women between the ages of 10 and 50 to Sabarimala under government’s protection and security,” he said.