In a high voltage drama witnessed a day after the Bombay High Court held that it was duty of the State Government to protect the fundamental right of women to enter temples, women activists were on Saturday prevented by aggressive villagers and temple management from entering the Shani Shingnapur temple in Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar district.
Upset with the manner in which the police “assisted” the villagers and security personnel from the temple in preventing her and her colleagues from entering the Shani temple, Bhumata Ranragini Brigade (BRB) chief Trupti Desai threatened to lodge an FIR against Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and the police for their failure to implement the high court’s directive to enforce the Maharashtra Hindu Place of Worship (Entry Authorisation) Act 1956.
After half-an-hour drama that saw women activists jostle with the local villagers -all women - and temple’s security personnel, Desai and her fellow activists were detained by the police and taken back towards Pune in a van.
Talking to media persons before she was taken away by the police, an angry Desai demanded the resignation of Fadnavis, who holds the state home portfolio, for his failure to implement the high court.
“If he cannot handle the Home portfolio, Fadnavis should immediately resign from his post. If the temple management has not received the high court’s order, then it is the failure of the state government i.e., the chief minister himself. If the police do not make any effort to disperse all those preventing us from entering the temple, then we will register an FIR against the police and the chief minister,” Desai said.
Seeking the intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the matter, Desai said: “I request Narendra Modiji to telephone Fadnavis and instruct him ensure that we are allowed honourably to go up “chauthara” (a platform housing the idol of lord Shani) and offer prayers to the presiding deity”.
Shortly after a group of 30-odd BRB activists, led by Desai, arrived from Pune at Shani Shingnapur to go up to the “chauthara” (a platform) housing the idol of lord Shani to offer prayers, the local villagers — mostly women — resisted the activists’ effort to force their way inside the temple.
The temple’s security personnel also assisted the local village women in preventing the women activists from entering the temple. For a long time, the police remained mute spectators to the physical confrontation between village women and BRB activists.
Ahead of the much-publicised arrival of BRB activists from Pune, the women from the village - together with the temple’s security - had laid siege to the Shani temple. A virtual clash broke out between the village women and BRB activists.
Subsequently, the police intervened and took the activists to a spot 100 meters away from the platform and threw a protective ring around them. The agitated activists jostled with the police to gain entry inside the temple, but in vain.
Having anticipated trouble, the police had made massive deployment of personnel around the temple.
Also prevented from entering the Shani temple was NCP’s former MlA Bhanudas Murkute who was leading a group of women to the sanctum sanctorum of the temple. He was roughed up by the villagers and temple’s security personnel.
Murkute claimed that he was roughed by the villagers and temple security personnel.
Earlier in the day, the temple management had taken a stand that it would not allow women activists to break a five-century-old tradition that barred women from climbing up to “chauthara” to offer prayers to lord Shani till such time it did not go through the Bombay High Court’s directive to the state government to enforce the law against gender discrimination in temples.
The Shani temple management had also announced that it would move the Supreme Court against the high court’s directive to the state government
In its direction given to the state government on Friday, a HC division bench of Chief Justice D H Waghela and Justice M S Sonak had said: “The acting Advocate General has assured the court that the government is against gender discrimination. Keeping in view Article 14, 15 and 25 of the Constitution of India, the government can take pro-active steps to ensure that the fundamental rights of a citizen are fully realised and not allowed to be encroached upon by any authority”.
Hearing a public interest litigation filed by senior advocate Nilima Vartak and activist Vidya Bal challenging prohibiting the entry of women in the Shani Shingnapur temple, the HC bench had also directed the secretary of Maharashtra’s Home Department to ensure that the policy and purpose of the Maharashtra Hindu Place of Worship (Entry Authorisation) Act 1956 “is fully carried out, and directions are issued to all district collectors and Superintendents of Police”.
On his part, Maharashtra’s Acting Advocate General Rohit Deo had given an undertaking to the high court saying that it would take “all necessary steps” to comply with the provisions of the Act which prescribes a punishment of six months’ imprisonment for those preventing anyone from entering a temple.
“The provisions of the Act shall be scrupulously implemented. The government is completely against gender discrimination. A circular or directive shall be issued to all district authorities informing them about the Act and its provisions,” the acting AG had told the high court.
Saturday’s was the second occasion when the BRB’s women activists were prevented from entering the Shani temple at Shingnapur.
It may be recalled that on January 26, 500-odd activists were detained by the Ahmednagar police at Supe toll naka, while they were on their way to storm the Shani Shingnapur temple and force entry inside the temple’s sanctum sanctorum.
Subsequently on March 7, more than 100 women activists owing affiliation to the BRB, led by Trupti Desai, were detained when they were on their way from Pune to Nashik to storm the Trimbakeswar temple seeking an entry into its sanctum sanctorum.
The failed attempt by the BRB women activists to storm the Shani Shingnapur temple on the occasion of Republic Day had come in the wake of a sensation that a woman from Pune had created by breaking a five-century-old taboo, climbed up to “chauthara” (a platform) housing the idol of lord Shani on November 28 last year.
The act of her performing puja had been captured on the CCTV of the temple the following morning. Irked by the incident, the temple management sacked seven security personnel and “purified” the idol by performing an “abhisheka” with milk on the following day.