The Nair Service Society (NSS) on Sunday held the State government responsible for the maelstrom of violence that rocked the State following the entry of two women of childbearing age to Sabarimala last week.
In a sharp rebuke of the State’s handling of the Sabarimala issue, NSS general secretary G. Sukumaran Nair said in a statement that the government had vitiated a problem which it could have resolved peacefully at the outset.
Renaissance values
However, the government had exploited the Supreme Court verdict on September 28 allowing the entry of women of all ages to Sabarimala to hurt faith and impose the practice of atheism on Kerala.
It attempted to lay down a smokescreen by quibbling about the erosion of renaissance values to prosecute the agenda of the ruling party through heinous means.
In defence of faith
He asked whether devotees could be faulted for wanting to protect the traditions at Sabarimala.
They had come forward to defend their faith. The government chose to assign the devotees a convenient political colour. It went in for mass arrests, the unnecessary imposition of prohibitory orders and challenged the faith of the people. The government had unleashed anarchism in Kerala.
Seeks support
Sabarimala issue was inextricably linked to all religions.
He asked other religions and allied social organisations to protest peacefully against the government’s trespasses into religious beliefs.
‘Humiliated Acharyas’
‘Mr. Nair pointedly said the government had cruelly humiliated “Hindu Acharyas.” His comment was interpreted widely as an oblique criticism of the decision of the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) to seek an explanation from the tantri of Sabarimala temple for ordering a “purification ritual” after two women between the “prohibited” age of 10 and 50 entered the sanctum of the temple early last Wednesday.
