Hundreds of men and women came together for the ‘Save Sabarimala’ campaign, organised by The Coimbatore Sree Ayyappa Seva Sangham and a host of other organisations here on Saturday.
The protesters marched from the Siddhapudur Ayyappan Temple to Gandhipuram, where they held a meeting on V.K.K. Menon Road.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Coir Board Chairman C.P. Radhakrishnan, who addressed a crowd of around 3,000 persons, said the march and meeting was not against anybody but for protection of age-old tradition and culture.
Of late, the trend among modern law practitioners was to challenge the tradition and culture of the land that had been upheld for generations and give it new interpretations, he said.
The followers of the culture or tradition would not accept those. Referring to dissenting Supreme Court judge Justice Indu Malhotra’s judgment in the case, Mr. Radhakrishnan said devotees of Lord Ayyappa could worship him anywhere but not in Sabarimala, where he practised celibacy and courts adjudicating matters of faith was not right.
P.R. Krishnakumar, Managing Director, Arya Vaidya Pharmacy, said the Supreme Court verdict permitting women of all ages in the hill shrine had galvanised and united Hindus, something which many Hindu leaders could only dream of but could not achieve.
Lord Ayyappa’s devotees across continents were staging protest against the verdict and their coming together would augur well for Hindus and the country, which was perhaps the god’s wish. Mr. Krishnakumar also said that not just Hindus, even Muslim and Christian devotees of the Lord were against the verdict and breaking the tradition.
Industrialist T. Rajkumar also spoke on the occasion.
