THRISSUR: The Thrissur Pooram witnessed dramatic scenes late on Friday after Thiruvambady devaswom stopped the ceremonies abruptly protesting the “unwanted restrictions by the police”. Much to the disappointment of the large crowd of people who gathered at the Swaraj Round in the wee hours of Saturday, the fireworks display was delayed for over three hours.
The unusual turn of events — just days ahead of the Lok Sabha election — triggered a controversy, leading to a political blame game.
V S Sunilkumar, LDF candidate in the Thrissur LS constituency, unleashed severe criticism on the police, saying they were harsh and lacked proper supervision. He said the revenue minister and district collector intervened to resolve the situation and continue the ceremonies.
Meanwhile, UDF candidate K Muraleedharan alleged that both state and Union governments tried to sabotage the Thrissur Pooram, an icon of Kerala. “Where was the revenue minister when all these crisis happened? Isn’t he supposed to act effectively so that the centuries-old rituals of Thrissur Pooram didn’t get interrupted,” he asked. Muraleedharan alleged that he suspect the whole drama at night was an attempt to give space for the BJP and NDA candidate Suresh Gopi ahead of elections. “Even kudamattom was conducted without any issues. Suddenly everything changed at night and what happened in between should be probed,” he said.
The BJP alleged conspiracy behind the unwanted restrictions in the conduct of the pooram. BJP state vice-president B Gopalakrishnan alleged a hidden agenda to sabotage the pooram. “There is conspiracy behind the police dominance in the festival ground and in the lathicharge that happened at night. Every year during Thrissur Pooram, there will be issues regarding either elephants or fireworks display. All such attempts are to destroy the festival,” he alleged.
‘Conspiracy behind restrictions’
“The latest incident is also a part of such deliberate attempts. When such crisis happened amid pooram, neither the devaswom minister nor revenue minister was there to sort it out,” he alleged, adding that neither MLA nor MP of Thrissur stood with the Thiruvambady devaswom when they faced an issue.
After the ceremonies were stopped abruptly, Suresh Gopi and Sunilkumar rushed to Thiruvambady devaswom’s office and held discussions with the committee members. Revenue Minister K Rajan and District Collector V R Krishna Teja intervened and urged the devaswom to complete the ceremonies. Later, fireworks display was carried out around 6.45am.
Thiruvambady devaswom president Sundar Menon said the police used barricades wherever possible and restricted easy movement of the people, dampening the spirit of Thrissur Pooram.