Continuing his whirlwind tour of the State to explain his government’s commitment to ensuring peaceful darshan for all devotees at the Sabarimala temple, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday said that the temple was unique in that “it does not belong to any particular section of people”.
He cited Kerala High Court’s observations while throwing out an appeal for restricting entry to the temple to Hindus to highlight it as an ‘iconic symbol’ of Kerala’s robust secularism. “Anybody desirous of having Ayyappa darshan can visit the temple, and you go to Vavar before seeking Ayyappa darshan… But some regressive forces have been trying of late to target Sabarimala just because of this exceptionality. We have to retain this. The government is duty bound to facilitate worship at the temple in a peaceful, tranquil environment,” Mr. Vijayan told a massive gathering here.
“Whether or not we are theists is not an issue here. The government stands firmly with the believers and have done better than any previous government to better the infrastructure at Sabarimala for pilgrims. A committee headed by former principal secretary to the prime minister T.K.A. Nair, an Ayyappa devotee, is expected to give its recommendations from the Sabarimala master plan for early implementation very soon. We will also adopt practices like online booking for darshan prevalent in temples elsewhere witnessing such mammoth crowds as Sabarimala.”
Tracing the history of women’s entry to Sabarimala, he said successive Left governments implemented the ban on entry for women of menstruating age to the shrine after the Kerala High Court passed such an order in 1991, but now that the Supreme Court annulled the ban, it was the government’s duty to facilitate everyone seeking darshan.
“If the apex court gives another ruling tomorrow on a review petition filed by some groups, we will implement it regardless whether it is in line with our thinking,” he said.
Flays Amit Shah
Mr. Vijayan lambasted BJP president Amit Shah for giving a call to pull down the State government, saying while Mr. Shah is learnt to have succeeded in having his ways elsewhere, the secular-minded people of Kerala would rebuff his call for riots. “The inheritors of Kerala’s renaissance will not allow his alien doctrine to be brought to this soil,” he said, lambasting the Congress for self-destructing by playing second fiddle to the BJP.
In a speech which delineated the course of Kerala’s social reformation and the role played by Sree Narayana Guru, Sahodaran Ayyappan, Chattambi Swami, Ayyankali and Mannath Padmanabhan in it, Mr. Vijayan said while the orthodoxy used all tools of suppression to resist renaissance at each stage, the ultimate victory was with the reformers.
“When the police arrest criminals who fomented trouble at Sabarimala, attempts are being made to depict it as action against devout Hindus. How can it be against Hindus? The Left front stands for every community’s right to worship and the action is only against those who sought to act against the law,” he said.
