NILAKKAL: On day I of the Sabarimala fiasco, the state government has obviously misjudged the way the whole episode would pan out in the coming days. The lack of adequate police force and absence of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on such a crucial day have already invited criticism. The CM has drawn immense flak from various quarters for his alleged insensitivity to the whole issue by choosing the same day to kick-start his foreign trip to mobilise resources for the state ravaged by the recent floods.
Despite the state government preferring to slow-pedal the implementation of the historic Supreme Court verdict, in an obvious move to not hurt religious sentiments of the majority, it failed miserably to assess the ground reality at Nilakkal.
It seems there were clear instructions from the police top brass as well as the state government to avoid unnecessary faceoffs with the protestors.
Curiously there were only 30-odd police personnel, including a few women cops to cater to a clearly explosive on-ground scenario, on Wednesday morning.
That the government clearly misread the situation is evident from the fact that additional police forces arrived only by evening to take stock of the situation.
The absence of the CM who handles the Home portfolio at such a crucial juncture has drawn widespread criticism from all around. Accusing the state government of grossly failing to handle the Sabarimala issue, the Congress party in the state is all set to make this a part of its campaign in the Sabarimala issue.
Moreover, the Congress feels the government machinery wholly failed to gauge the extent of an unhealthy intervention by a section of the BJP to foment trouble during the protests by devotees to stop women of all ages from entering the shrine.
“At a time when the state is going through such a highly sensitive and potentially explosive scenario, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has chosen to entrust the entire onus on the state police force and leave for the UAE, apparently to rebuild Kerala. This just underlines the fact that he chose to treat the issue lightly.
It is very obvious that he was trying to escape being held accountable for the ongoing farce,” Congress working president K Sudhakaran told Express.
The government, however, maintained that the police showed admirable restraint in dealing with the situation at Nilakkal. It was only after devotees from other states as well as media persons were attacked that the police resorted to lathi-charge, said the CM’s private secretary M V Jayarajan.
The media vehicles that bore the brunt of the violence were damaged by criminals from outside who had infiltrated into the ranks of the devotees, maintained Jayarajan. When asked about the glaring absence of the CM on such a crucial day, Jayarajan said, “The CM chose to take into consideration the immense significance of rebuilding the entire state in the wake of the recent floods and had to leave for the UAE according to his prior schedule.”