BJP president Amit Shah on Tuesday hit-out at the Pinarayi Vijayan Government's handling of the situation in Sabarimala as "disappointing" and charged it with treating pilgrims as "Gulag inmates" in the forced labour camps in the erstwhile Soviet communist regime.
"If Pinarayi Vijayan thinks he can rise against people's movement to preserve Sabarimala by arresting K Surendran, our Thrissur District president and 6 others, then he is mistaken. We stand firmly with every Ayyappa devotee, who holds the Sabarimala tradition close to his heart," Shah said in a series of tweets.
The BJP president said his party will not let the LDF "crush people's faith with impunity".
"If several reports of flushing resting places for devotees and them having to spend nights next to pig droppings & dustbin are true, then Pinarayi Vijayan must realise that he can't treat Ayyappa devotees like inmates of Gulag. We won't let LDF crush people's faith with impunity", he said.
Gulag was a system of forced labour camps established during Communist leader Joseph Stalin's rule in the Soviet Union who ruled Soviet Union after the death of leader of Soviet revolution V I Lenin.
Shah has been extending open support to devotees in Kerala protesting the State Government's move to implement a Supreme Court order lifting the bar on women of menstruating age from visiting the temple. The Left Democratic Front (LDF) has accused the BJP of politicising the court order with the Chief Minister asserting that it is the job of a Government to implement the apex court's order.