Union Minister Smriti Irani on Tuesday drew an analogy of taking blood seeping sanitary napkins into a friend's home to voice her stand on the Sabarimala temple entry issue. She said women had the right to pray but had no right to desecrate the place of worship.
Participating at a Young Thinkers’ Conference organised by the British Deputy High Commission and think-tank Observer Research Foundation (ORF) here, Irani said: “I believe I have the right to pray but I don’t have the right to desecrate… And that is the difference we need to recognise and respect … I am nobody to speak on the Supreme Court verdict because I am a current serving Cabinet Minister. But just plain common sense. Would you take menstrual blood steeping sanitary napkins and walk into a friend’s home? You would not.
“And would you think that it is respectful to do the same when you walk into the house of god? So that is the difference. I have a right to pray but I don’t have the right to desecrate. That is my personal opinion,” the Minister said.
Following the Supreme Court’s verdict, the Sabrimala temple opened its doors to women of all age groups. The temple was closed on Monday after the monthly pujas. Widespread protests by devotees succeeded in preventing women in the banned age group of 10 to 50 years from entering the temple premises. Prior to the apex court’s verdict, women in the menstruating age were only permitted till the base camp near the Pamba river, while men were allowed to continue the five-km long uphill trek to the temple.
Irani, who is married to a Parsi, recalled as to how she was made to wait outside a fire temple in Mumbai with her son inside.
“"What does that mean irrespective of whether I am a politician or a minister, because I have two Zoroastrian children and a Zoroastrian husband. I am made to stand outside. I will stand either on the road or sit in my car...
“When I took my newborn son (to a fire temple in Andheri), I had to give him to my husband at the temple, because I was shooed away and told don't stand here," she said.