Bhumata Brigade leader submits memorandum, says CM responded favourably assuring he’d discuss issue
The women’s outfit spearheading the campaign against a centuries-old ban on women devotees entering the chauthara or sacred platform at Shani Shingnapur temple in Maharashtra on Thursday took their fight to chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, asking him to lift the restriction.
A day after the police foiled the attempt by 400 women activists to barge into the famous temple in Ahmednagar district as part of their high-voltage stir, Ranragini Bhumata Brigade (RBB) leader Trupti Desai met Mr Fadnavis here and presented a memorandum of demands seeking his support to end the gender bias and give unrestricted entry to women at the temple and all other sacred places in the state.
The meeting with Mr Fadnavis took place on the sidelines of a function here even as the Gram Sabha at the village where the shrine is located passed a resolution condemning Ms Desai and her volunteers for attempts to storm the chauthara. The plan was foiled when the police stopped the marchers at Supa village, 70 km away from the shrine. The activists were released after being detained for a few hours.
Hundreds of women activists who wanted to break tradition and take the darshan of Lord Shani in Shani Shingnapur were stopped by the police at Supe village Tuesday evening. The police had already put up barricades on the road leading to Shani Shingnapur at Supe Phata, about 65 km from the temple town. The buses and vehicles carrying the activists were stopped at 4.30 pm. The activists then alighted and tried to walk away but were stopped by the police, leading to heated confrontations.
The activists then staged a half-hour blockade on the road and were detained in a marriage hall in Supa MIDC Chowk. Here they were kept till 7 pm and then sent back to Pune.
Speaking to The Asian Age from Pune, Ms Desai said that they met Mr Fadnavis in Pune Wednesday afternoon at MIT College. “We gave him a memorandum and told him that, the government should take over the Temple Administration and open it for women. He said that he would discuss it and solve the issue. We urged him to open up all religious places in Maharashtra to women and also invited him to conduct worship of Lord Shani with his wife,” she said.
Mr Fadnavis on Tuesday said a dialogue between temple authorities and activists should be held to find a way out over the ban on entry of women into the inner sanctum of the shrine. “Indian culture and the Hindu religion give women the right to pray. Discrimination in praying is not in our culture. The temple authorities should resolve the issue through a dialogue,” Mr Fadnavis, who also holds the home portfolio, had said.
Shani Shingnapur Devasthan Trust Assistant CEO G. Darandale said that the charity commissioner had sent notice to Ms Desai to discuss the issue. When asked about government efforts to solve the issue, he said that the Trust had not received any official communication in this regard.
Ahmednagar Superintendent of Police (SP) Saurav Tripathi said that the focus now was on coordinating for an amicable discussion between the women activists and the temple administration.
Leading Hinduism scholar and Nashik Purohit Sangh President Satish Shukla said that the Devasthans have their own regulations. “In Rameshwaram, only the hereditary purohits (temple priests) are allowed to conduct puja in the sanctum sanctorum of the temple. Local purohits and even we were not allowed. It’s up to the Shankaracharya to solve the issue,” Mr Shukla said.
