SABARIMALA: The air at Sannidhanam was tense early on Tuesday morning when devotees blocked the entry of 52-year-old Lalitha from Thrissur on suspicion she is under 50. Hundreds of devotees thronged the nadapandal and the police had a tough time shifting her to a safe place. Cases were later registered against 200 people for blocking the woman.
In a first, agitators were seen protesting at the 18 holy steps without the irumudikettu. In the melee, the police and mediapersons were attacked. Amrita TV senior cameraman Biju Muraleedharan was hit with a coconut covered in a bath towel and was seen profusely bleeding. Several reporters and camerapersons from both the print and visual media were beaten up.
However, after finding Lalitha was well beyond the age of 50, the protesters allowed her to enter the temple for darshan. RSS leader Valsan Thillankery spoke to the protesters and settled the matter. BJP women’s wing leader from Tamil Nadu, Anu Mouli, later took her for darshan and told her in the presence of the media: “We don’t have any issues with you . The anti-devotee policies of Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and the highhandedness of the police make the protesting devotees turn violent at times.” “We don’t know who attacked mediapersons. There were both right wing Left wing extremists present to deliberately create mischief,’’ Thillankery said. Meanwhile, allegations are rife over the devotees sitting on the 18 holy steps without irumudikettu to prevent women from entering the temple.
Woman from Andhra Pradesh blocked
Thillankery was seen addressing the gathering of devotees and asking them to move away from the steps and to disperse. “I was about to have darshan after climbing the holy steps with irumudikettu when I heard loud and angry voices. I rushed to the spot only to find devotees sitting on the steps. I climbed two steps and asked all of them to disperse,” said Thillankery.
“The police and the state government have a clear agenda to destroy Sabarimala by curtailing the free movement of devotees”, said BJP state general secretary M T Ramesh. There is criticism against the Police Department and its failure in preventing the issue getting out of hand. While the woman devotee was being blocked at nadapandal, only a few policemen were present who were outumbered by the protesting devotees.
In a related development, Vijayalakshmi, a 55-year-old woman devotee from Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, was blocked by the protesting devotees and asked to prove her credentials. She was later allowed to proceed for darshan. “It was easy for women above the restricted age to traverse to Sabarimala and have darshan, but after the Supreme Court verdict, things have turned topsy-turvy for women. I feel embarrassed,” said Vijayalakshmi.
Cops now have a mountain to climb
As the hill abode of Lord Ayyappa closed after the one-day Chithira Attam festival on Tuesday, the writing on the wall has become clear. The issue was more about providing age-proof of women devotees and less about young women whose rare entry mostly gets negated one way or the other at the base camp itself.
On Monday evening, when the temple opened, the debate was whether the police would be able to handle the entry of young women if such a situation arose. But the narrative changed on Tuesday morning as the police struggled to escort even a 52-year-old woman to the temple,
braving the wall of protests. Things took an unexpected turn when the police were forced to seek the help of an RSS leader to pacify the irate devotees and reassure them the lady was not below 50 as was rumoured.
If this was the challenge faced on a single day, the police will have a mountain to climb when the Mandala Pooja season begins only 10 days hence. With lakhs of devotees descending on the hill shrine, maintaining law and order is clearly going to be a herculean task.