THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala has said the Congress and UDF will be conducting a one-month long public awareness drive on the Sabarimala issue. He said the front will conduct a massive programme at Putharikandam in Thiruvananthapuram on October 22.
Chennithala said a similar programme would be conducted at Kollam on October 31 and in the rest of the districts in November. He said the CPM and the Travancore Devaswom Board are trying to make Sabarimala issue bad from worse and that the BJP is also trying to gain mileage out of it by trying to make Sabarimala a war zone.
He lashed out at the TDB and said there is a general consensus among the devotees that the board should give a review petition against the judgment and added that the TDB president is playing hide and seek in the matter of filing a review plea.
TDB chief A Padmakumar had announced that a review petition will be given but when the Chief Minister acted tough he backtracked, said Chennithala.
He said nothing would come out of the meeting called by the board president on October 19.
He said the government or the board is not trying to fizzle out and cool down the tempers and instead trying to fan up tempers which is highly deplorable.
“The CPM has nefarious intentions on the issue and is trying to make a major communal polarisation in the state and thereby favour the BJP,” he said. Reiterating that the Congress and the UDF have the same stand as always in the Sabarimala issue, he said the UDF wants customs and rituals of the hill shrine preserved.
On the basis of this stand, the UDF Government had given an affidavit in the SC in 2016 but the successive LDF Government withdrew the affidavit and gave a fresh one stating that women of all ages can be given entry to Sabarimala and this led to the present judgment, he said.
He ridiculed the agitation carried out by the BJP and RSS and called upon them to make new legislation using the good offices of the Central government.