A noisy protest broke out at Pampa on Sunday morning when a group of persons objected to two women from Andhra Pradesh trekking uphill to the Sabarimala temple.
The Hindu editorial on Sabarimala
The protesters demanded that the police verify their age before allowing them to ascend the 4 km forest path to the hill shrine. The police escorted them to the safety of their barracks and persuaded the women pilgrims to abandon their plan to worship at the hill shrine. The women gave written statements to the police that they were returning home on their own volition because they did not want to precipitate a law and order situation.
The police identified the women as Vasanthi, 46, and Adhisheshi, 42. They had arrived at Pampa with their male relatives.
An array of Hindu right-wing outfits, outraged by the Supreme Court’s order upholding the right of women of childbearing age to worship at the overwhelmingly male only shrine, had been on the warpath to overturn the decision ever since the temple opened for pooja on October 17.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has aggressively backed the agitation. Temple priests, their relatives and the former ruling family of Pandalam, which claims to have a say in how temple rituals are conducted, were also at the forefront of the increasingly belligerent protests.
For the past four days, the police had a tough time striking a delicate balance between their legal obligation to provide security to women intent on visiting the temple and not precipitating a law and order situation by using force against protesters intent on undermining the momentous SC order.
Several women journalists and social activists, including The New York Times reporter, Suhasini Raj , had to face the ire of protesters and had to abandon their plans to visit the shrine. The protest had manifested as a crippling BJP-sponsored general strike marked by widespread vandalism and attacks on police on October 19.
