Facing a stiff backlash spearheaded by the Sangh Parivar and sundry Hindu outfits against the Supreme Court verdict permitting women of all ages to enter the Sabarimala hill shrine in Kerala, the CPM-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) government appears to be softening its resolve to implement the apex court’s ruling.
Citing a Constitutional obligation to implement the Supreme Court’s order delivered on 28 September 2018, the LDF moved with alacrity to let females between the ages of 10 and 50 into the temple famous for its celibate deity.
However, the Sangh Parivar, seeing an opening to mobilise the faithful, took to the streets, co-opting a nascent movement launched by non-political groupings of devotees opposing the court’s ruling.
When the temple opened its gates on Wednesday, the base town of Nilackal, located 20km down route, became the epicentre of violent protests with pitched battles ensuing between BJP/RSS cadres and the police. Women pilgrims from the neighbouring states of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh were turned back by zealots barring their entry into the temple precincts. Despite heavy police escort, female journalists met the same rude reception, with a New York Times reporter complaining of being pelted with stones by angry protesters.
With Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, the motivating force behind the implementation of the court’s ruling, away in the UAE to raise funds for flood relief victims, the LDF appeared rudderless in the face of the saffron offensive. Minister for Industries and Commerce E.P. Jayarajan, ranking Cabinet member and coalition in-charge in the CM’s absence, was caricatured by the audiovisual media for invoking the wrath of Lord Ayyappa, the presiding deity of the Sabarimala temple, on the protesters.
The CPM’s climbdown from its hardline stand became apparent when the Minister for Devaswom (Temple Administration) Affairs Kadakampally Surendran left it up to the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) to decide whether or not to file a review petition against the Supreme Court ruling. Prior to leaving for the UAE, Chief Minister Vijayan is understood to have expressed his displeasure and pulled up the TDB chairman for mooting the idea of filing a review petition. The government’s current position, according to sources, is that while it will not actively push for women’s entry into Sabarimala, those women who wish to worship at the temple in the wake of the court’s verdict will be provided all logistical and institutional support by the government.
The heavy police presence at Sabarimala notwithstanding, the government is finding it hard going to implement the Supreme Court verdict. As of now, women have not managed to exercise their newfound right of entry into the hill shrine.
The first sign of a dichotomy on the issue of temple entry for women following the Supreme Court ruling was the mass turnout on the streets of women devotees opposed to the verdict. Marching under no specific political banner, women devotees proclaimed their faith in the age-old practices and traditions of the Sabarimala temple, in sharp contrast to the rationalist and reformist views expressed by CPM leaders, both men and women. This goes to the core of the debate that currently animates public discourse in Kerala, noted for its politically conscious population and high social and health indices.
Inevitably, politics has hijacked what began as an attempt by the apex court to enforce gender equality in the sphere of religious practice. The key players looking to capitalise on the issue are the usual suspects: the CPM, Congress and the BJP, among the political parties, as well as caste-based organisations such as the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam (SNDP) of the Ezhava community and the Nair Service Society of the Nair community. Added to the mix is a clutch of Hindu outfits such as the Hindu Mahasabha and the Sabarimala Samrakshana Samithi.
The CPM-led LDF ruling coalition seized on the Supreme Court verdict to close the gender gap and harvest women votes in the state, while also preempting the BJP’s attempt to build a Hindu vote base around the vexed issue. The state Congress is vying with the BJP to keep women off Sabarimala, but is at odds with the Congress high command which supports the Supreme Court verdict unequivocally. The NSS and SNDP Yogam have adopted mutually inimical postures, with the NSS filing a review petition against the Supreme Court verdict, while the SNDP Yogam has distanced itself from the ongoing agitation. The Hindu outfits are militantly opposed to women entering Sabarimala.
With battlelines drawn, the Supreme Court’s brave Sabarimala temple entry proclamation for women of all ages may evade consensus as long as pilgrims to the temple swear by Lord Ayyappa’s celibate status.