THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The meeting between the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) and representatives of various outfits, including the Pandalam royal family, held on the eve of the opening of the Sabarimala temple for monthly poojas failed to break the deadlock.
With both sides hardening their stand on the Supreme Court verdict allowing women of all ages to enter the hill shrine, the talks failed and the representatives of royal family and Hindu outfits walked out of the conciliatory meeting.
Pandalam Palace Coordination Committee president Sasikumar Varma said the meeting failed to reach a consensus over a host of issues raised by the devotees. Their main demand was the immediate filing of a review petition against the Supreme Court verdict.
“But the TDB refused to heed the request of devotees and sought time till Friday to take a decision at the board meeting. We can’t afford to buy time when the temple is set to open within a few hours,” he said.
“Further, the Board had rejected the royal family’s stand that the 1991 Justice K Paripoornan verdict upholding the restriction on women of a particular age group is sill maintainable,” he said.
“The second issue we raised was the continuance of status quo till the apex court takes a decision on the review petition. But with the TDB rejecting the proposal of filing the review petition immediately, there was no scope for holding a talks over maintaining status quo at the temple,” he said.
He also said that a meeting between priests and representatives of various outfits including Pandalam Palace, Akhila Bharatha Ayyappa Seva Sanghom and Sabarimala Ayyappa Seva Samajom, would be convened soon to decide on the course of the agitation to be adopted in the coming days.
However, he said they have no plans to block the pilgrims who come to the hill shrine. But they should not be blamed if devotees block female pilgrims.
Meanwhile, TDB president A Padmakumar said the adamant stand taken by the representatives of devotees to file the review petition today itself affected the progress of the meeting.
The TDB is ready to hold another round of discussion with various stakeholders involved in the issue, he said.
According to Nair Service Society general secretary G Sukumaran Nair, as the government and the TDB decided to ignore the stance of lakhs of women who protested against the decision to allow the entry of women to Sabarimala, it is now the devotees who hold the rituals and practices close to their heart to take a stand on the issue.