A day after their attempt to storm the famous Shani Shingnapur temple was foiled by the police and the Ahmednagar district authorities, women activists belonging to the Bhumata Ranragini Brigade (BRB) on Wednesday met Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in Pune and sought his intervention in ensuring the entry of women into the sanctum sanctorum of the five-decade-old temple.
Fadnavis, who had through a tweet asked the Shani Shingnapur temple management to take the initiative of holding a dialogue with the agitating women activists to resolve the dispute, told the BRB delegation that the State Government that it concurred with the stand taken by the women activists and would work towards ensuring that there was no gender discrimination at the temple.
“Under the Indian tradition and Hindu religion, women have always enjoyed the right to pray. A change in traditions is our culture. Discrimination in praying is not in our culture. The temple management should resolve the issue through a dialogue,” Fadnavis had tweeted in Marathi on Tuesday night.
Following Fadnavis’ tweet, the Shani Shingnapur temple trust appeared to have softened its stand on the denial of entry to women to its place of worship. However, there was no official word from the temple management till the evening that it was prepared to hold talks with the agitating women brigade.
Fadnavis’ reaction came after 500-odd women activists of Bhumata Ranragini Brigade (BRB) were intercepted and detained at Supe in Ahmednagar district on Tuesday evening, while they were on their way to Shani Shingnapur temple.
The women activists, who were travelling from Pune to Shani Shingnapur in 7 buses and 15 cars, were stopped by a posse of police personnel — comprising a large number of women constables at Supe toll naka, 70 kms away from the temple town.
Talking to mediapersons after a meeting with Fadnavis, BRB convener Trupti Desai said: “We submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister, urging the State Government to take control of the Shani Shingnapur temple trust and to ensure that the women were allowed to enter the sanctum sanctorum at the temple. We also requested him to bring in a law to ensure that both men and were allowed entry into all temples across the State”.
“We also told the Chief Minister that as and when the State Government facilitates entry of women into the lord Shani temple, we requested him to come to the temple along with his wife and all of us, to offer prayers at the “chauthara” (a platform) housing the idol of lord Shani. Such thing would set a new precedent at the temple, Desai said.
“The Chief Minister told us that he supported us stand fully. He asked us on carry on with our crusade to ensure entry for women at the Shani temple and assured the State Government’s full co-operation in ensuring that our demand is met by the temple management,” Desai said.
Alluding to the assurance given by the Chief Minister, senior BJP Minister and number two in the Devendra Fadnavis Cabinet Eknath Khadse said: “We as a State Government take all precautions to ensure that religious sentiments of any section of people is not hurt. All the same, we believe that women should have equal rights as men to pray at the temple. The Chief Minister has already spelt out the State Government’s stand on the issue”.
On his part, Minister of State for Home Prof Ram Shinde said: “If there is a dispute between activists and temple authorities over allowing women access to the temple platform, the State Government will act as facilitator for talks between them so that the issue can be resolved amicably”.
The BRB’s protest action had come on the occasion of Republic Day in the wake of a sensation that a still-to-be identified 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.
Desai, who has taken up cudgels against the temple authorities against the gender discrimination, said that that her organisation had specially chosen Republic day to protest.
On an average, 10,000 to 40,000 people visit the Shani temple every day. The pilgrims climb up to open-air “chauthara” and offer prayers to lord Shani — a five-and-a-half-feet high black rock with a “trishul” (trident) placed alongside and a Nandi (bull) installed on the southern side of the quadrangle symbolising the presiding deity.
The move by the BRB to storm the lord Shani temple came a fortnight after the temple management created history of sorts by electing unanimously Anita Chandrahas Shetye as the first-ever woman chairperson of the temple trust.
After her election as the chairperson of the temple trust on January 11, Anita Shetye had announced that she would continue enforce the five-century-old tradition of barring women from climbing up to “chauthara” housing the presiding deity to offer prayers.