The Sabarimala Temple issue has become a Centre vs Kerala Government tussle by Wednesday as Pon Radhakrishnan, Union Minister of State for Finance, Surface Transport and Shipping disclosing at the shrine that a superintendent of police humiliated him while he was on his way to the shrine.
“I was told by the SP at Nilackel on Wednesday morning that I cannot go to Pamba by car and he asked me to go by the KSRTC bus. When I asked him politely, the SP raised his voice and shouted at me. Can this officer question the Kerala ministers like the way he shouted at me?” Pon Radhakrishnan told reporters after worshipping at the holy shrine.
The high-handed behaviour of Yatheesh Chandra, SP, was telecast live by news channels much to the embarrassment of the Kerala Police. By afternoon, the Kerala Government was in for more trouble as the High Court slammed it over the propriety of deputing officers with shady past at a holy place.
Radhakrishnan who reached Nilackel on Wednesday morning to offer prayers at the Ayyappa Temple was stopped by Yatheesha Chandra, superintendent of police from proceeding to the shrine in his personal car. “You cannot go to Pamba by car. You are allowed to travel only by the KSRTC bus, Minister,” the SP told the Minister who listened to him with amusement.
When the Minister asked Chandra, why private vehicles were not allowed beyond Nilackel, 22-km away from Pamba, the latter said there were chances of landslides and hence no private vehicles were allowed. Undeterred by the restrictions, the Minister opted to travel by a KSRTC bus while the BJP leader AN Radhakrishnan who accompanied him said that the police officer could have showed some basic courtesy to the Union Minister.
“The SP told me that private vehicles are not allowed beyond Nilackel as part of a Master Plan the Kerala Government has prepared for Sabarimala. But it is clear that the Master Plan by the Kerala Government is to keep the devotees away from the temple,” said Pon Radhakrishnan while speaking to reporters at Sannidhananm.
The Minister said he has been a regular pilgrim to Sabarimala since the age of five and n has never experienced in the past this kind of hostility by the authorities. “The intention of the authorities is to make life difficult for the devotees. The principal them of Lord Ayyappa himself is unity and integration. But the police force in Sabarimala is working to destroy and demolish these unifying factors,” said the Minister who added that he was like any other devotees and does not require any privileges which other devotees are not entitled to.
The Minister also decried the slapping of Section 144 at a place of worship like Sabarimala.
“See the empty places all over this shrine. This is the proof of public resentment over the Master Plan devised by the Kerala Government to keep Sabarimala inaccessible for devotees,” said Pon Radhakrishnan.
Meanwhile, the Kerala High Court on Wednesday expressed its disgust and disappointment over the behaviour of police towards the devotees. “How come officers with criminal records have been deputed at a place like Sabarimala? The Inspector General Vijay Sachare and the SY Yatheesh Chandra have tainted career behind them. While Sachare is an accused in a custodial death case, Chandra figures in a case of assaulting women and children. Why have you deputed such officers at Sabarimala where people require services of benevolent officers and men?” asked Justices Ramachandra Menon and Anil Kumar who continued hearing petitions filed by devotees against alleged police cruelty.
TP Senkumar, former State Police Chief, who was eased out of office by the CPM Government lambasted the police and the Kerala Government over the unfortunate developments at Sabarimala.
“There are good officers and men in the police force who are well trained in crowd management. But the personnel posted at Sabarimala are of dubious nature. This is what we get when officers who are familiar with looking after the children and grandchildren of ministers are posted as police chides,” Senkumar said.