Kerala will observe a total shut down from dawn to dusk on Thursday to protest the entry of two women activists who claim to be below 50 years of age into the holy shrine at the Lord Ayyappa Temple at Sabarimala in the wee hours of Wednesday. The call for hartal was given by the Sabarimala Action Committee and has been supported by the Kerala unit of the BJP.
The priests, who were shocked when they saw the approaching women, shut the doors of the temple for atonement and purification pujas. The temple was reopened for the public after an hour of homam and pujas. Nearly 25,000 devotees were asked to vacate the temple premises.
Bindu and Kanakadurga, two activists from Kozhikode and Malappuram in Northern Kerala, entered the temple dressed up as men and escorted by armed police guards at 3.45 am on Wednesday.
The temple priests and devotees who were getting ready for the Nirmalya puja (first puja at day break) were shocked to see the women activists accompanied by a heavy posse of police officers walking towards the sanctum of the temple.
Swamy Chidanandapuri, spiritual leader of the Hindus in Kerala, called for a liberation struggle to save Kerala from the shackles of non-believers, rationalists and atheists who were out to destroy the social harmony of the State. “It is time for Congress, Muslim League various Kerala, Congresses and the BJP to come together and save Kerala from the clutches of non-believers. Today they destroyed the custom and tradition of a Hindu temple which is held in high esteem even by Christians and Muslims.
Tomorrow they would destroy churches and mosques in this land , which are the links to our heritage and culture,” Swamiji told The Pioneer over telephone from Gujarat.
Later in the day, a gleaming Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan told reporters that two women had entered the temple aided by police. “The women had asked for police protection and the government was bound to provide it,” said the Chief Minister. Temple officials said police registered the women as trans genders before taking them inside the temple.
The action of the Government and police in facilitating the entry of the women in temple took the sheen out of whatever success recorded by Tuesday’s Women’s Wall organised by the CPI-M and the Kerala Government. The 620 km long wall stretching from Kasaragod to Thiruvananthapuram was portrayed as a major success by the CPI-M though some section of the media aired visuals of many breaches in the wall formed by working women and party activists.
The report about the entry of women in the temple saw BJP activists thronging the capital city and other major cities in the State. For hours, the cities saw protestors engaging in pitched battles with police who had to resort to lathi charge and using water canons to dispel the marauding crowd.
“The Hindu society need not be disappointed by this coward act by the police and the women. The action of the authorities as well as that of the women was a shame on a the modern society. It resembled a dacoity held in an unmanned house by armed gangs,” said the Swamiji.
Prof P G Haridas, president, Tapasya, Kerala’s oldest cultural organisation said the Government failed in safeguarding and protecting the spiritual beliefs of communities in the State. “This does not augur well for the State or for other religions,” said Prof Haridas.
At the time of going to Press, massive protest marches were being held across Kerala by the devotees as well as the BJP activists.