BJP State president P.S. Sreedharan Pillai has said that the LDF government was trying to “destroy” the uniqueness of the Sabarimala temple in the name of the Supreme Court verdict allowing women of all ages to worship at the hill shrine.
Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, Mr. Pillai said the CPI(M)-led Left Front had been attempting to wipe out the uniqueness of the centuries-old practices at the temple whenever it was in power.
He added that the Chief Minister, an atheist, had no right to speak about the practices of the Hindu community. His statements against the tantri and the government’s proposal to restrict the number of devotees during festival seasons amounted to openly challenging Ayyappa devotees, Mr. Pillai said.
The BJP leader said the Chief Minister’s view that the Pandalam royal family had no kinship claims to the Sabarimala temple should be read in the context of the “sinister moves” of the CPI(M) to divide the Hindu community on casteist lines. However, all political designs of the ruling party on the Sabarimala issue right from the beginning had met with failure, Mr. Pillai said.
Now, the Chief Minister has also threatened the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) for planning to file a review petition on the Supreme Court verdict, he said.
According to him, the government has also resorted to double standards to hoodwink devotees by presenting one version in the Supreme Court and another before the public. This was pointed out by senior counsel K.K. Venugopal who appeared for the TDB when the writ petition came up for hearing in November 2016.
Quoting a Supreme Court listing, Mr. Pillai said senior counsel Jaideep Gupta, who appeared for the State had “unequivocally stated that the Kerala government was of the view that women of no age should be debarred to enter the temple and worship the deity.”
He added that the BJP would intensify its protest in a democratic manner against the government’s decision. The CPI(M) should examine if it was morally right for a political party to orchestrate a campaign and file a contempt of court petition against him, Mr. Pillai said.
