The United Democratic Front (UDF) on Monday expressed solidarity with the ongoing agitations seeking protection for the rituals and customs followed at Sabarimala and asked the Centre and State governments to promulgate ordinances to prevent courts from overriding customs and traditions.
Addressing a press conference after an urgent meeting of the UDF liaison committee here, the Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala blamed the State government for complicating matters by taking varying positions and changing the stand taken by the Oommen Chandy government in 2016 formulated on the basis of the High Court verdict of 1990 delivered by Justice Paripoornan when the case came up before the Supreme Court.
Flays RSS
Mr. Chennithala said the CPI(M), BJP and the RSS were trying to convert Sabarimala into a tense area. He lashed out at the RSS in particular for its opportunistic stand, initially supporting the Supreme Court verdict. Moreover, the BJP was nowhere in the picture all these years.
The Central government had the responsibility to maintain customs and traditions as guaranteed by the Constitution, but the Attorney General had failed to take a strong stand on this, he said.
He said the UDF did not want to create tensions and wanted a resolution to protect customs, rituals and traditions through established means. “We are not for hartals and other aggressive steps. We do not support such attempts. We will not allow anything that would hurt the sentiments of devotees. Kerala had strong secular roots,” Mr. Chennithala said.
He said the UDF had consistently taken the stand on the issue of women’s entry in Sabarimala. It continued to stand by the affidavit filed by the Chandy government. He wondered why the BJP was reluctant to put pressure on the Centre to promulgate an ordinance to prevent courts from overriding religious beliefs.
