KASARGOD: Devotees should come together and burn down the offertory boxes to save temples from the government, said BJP Rajya Sabha member Suresh Gopi. The government or the party leading the government was overzealous in taking over temples only because of their offertory boxes, he said. “The bad practice called offertory box should be destroyed. It should be burnt down. You should not drop a single paisa in it,” he said in Kanhangad on Tuesday.
He was speaking at a public rally organised by the BJP to protest against the implementation of the Supreme Court verdict allowing women in Sabarimala, and the subsequent police crackdown on the protesters.
Devotees should build the infrastructure and facilities needed in a temple on their own, he said. There was no need to give the money to corrupt officials and contractors, he said.
“We never thought of it for so long. I believe, (chief justice) Dipak Misra gave such a verdict only to make you think. That is a direction of Ayyappa Swami,” he said.
He said no sincere devotee of Ayyappa would go to Sabarimala despite the verdict.
“We also know that, and the government also knows that. That is why they brought in the activists,” he said.
Recounting his own experience, he said he climbed the hills to Sabarimala with his daughters for five years. “From the age of five till before they turned 10 years, I held their hands and did the pilgrimage,” he said.
“On the tenth year, when nothing happened (did not experience menarche), they asked me if they could go to Sabarimala that year too. I made them understand that if it happens during the pilgrimage, it will be a blot on my lord. After that, they have never made that demand,” he said.
He said the government, which took an “arrogant stance” on Sabarimala, was jittery. “That is why they have launched door-to-door explanatory campaigns. But in reality, these door-to-door campaigns are distortionary meetings,” he said.
There would be a democratic assault on the government, and the CPM for their stance, he said. “I pray to Ayyappa Swami to give a fitting punishment to this government. I am saying this with pain. I have no hostility towards it. Those on the opposite side are not enemies. They are cowards,” he said.
He urged the BJP-RSS supporters to exercise restraint during their protest. “We will be victorious in this struggle for our faith. Exercise restraint. No one with the name of Vijayan can deny us that,” he said.