The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday declared that it would thwart the Kerala government’s plan to mobilise women to form a “human wall” on New Year’s Day.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had on Saturday announced the 'wall' to protect secular values against the backdrop of the increasingly divisive and communally charged agitation to prevent women between the age of 10 and 50 from entering Sabarimala.
BJP leader M.T. Ramesh said a broad coalition of the faithful would defeat the proposed wall of “non-believers". Women believers would marshal themselves to resist the “wall of atheists", he said.
Mr. Ramesh dared the government in front of the Kerala Secretariat where BJP State general secretary A. N. Radhakrishnan had commenced an indefinite fast to roll back the prohibitory orders and “police raj” in Sabarimala. Mr. Ramesh’s announcement was yet another indication that the BJP planned to escalate their agitation in the coming days.
The proposed wall of women would stretch 640 km from Kasargod to Thiruvananthapuram on January 1.
The Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam (SNDP) and the Kerala Pulayar Maha Sabha (KPMS) had thrown in their lot with the government to protect what they termed as the social dividends of the 19th century Enlightenment Movement that emancipated women, wiped out untouchability and obsolete religious practices in Kerala.
However, in a setback to the government, the Nair Service Society (NSS), another influential community organisation, had cold-shouldered the CM’s invitation to join the programme.
The NSS had fielded women to organise prayer meetings across the State to protect the beliefs of Ayyappa devotees.
The movement later gathered political momentum as the BJP and various Hindu organisations threw their weight behind the “Save Sabarimala” campaign.
BJP State president P.S. Sreedharan Pillai said the party’s Sabarimala agitation had entered its third phase. BJP workers would break the prohibitory orders in Sabarimala. BJP national secretary Saroj Pande, MP, inaugurated the fast. She earlier met BJP leader K. Surendran at the Central Prison here.
