BJP State general secretary K. Surendran has questioned the intention behind the proposed ‘women’s wall.’ The campaign is aimed at furthering the political agenda of the CPI(M), according to him.
The BJP leader, who walked out of the Poojappura Central Prison on Saturday after being granted bail by the High Court, said he was subjected to grave human rights violations while in custody for 22 days.
At a meet-the-press at the Thiruvananthapuram Press Club on Saturday, Mr. Surendran asked Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to clarify whether the campaign was connected to the government’s bid to facilitate young women’s entry to Sabarimala. He raised the issue in the wake of Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana (SNDP) Yogam general secretary Vellappally Natesan’s claim that the women’s wall was intended to protect the values of the reformation movement.
Natesan’s stand
“Mr. Natesan, the chairman of the general council constituted to organise the Statewide campaign, has said that it is not related to the Sabarimala issue. If so, it remains to be clarified why a movement to preserve the State’s reformation values is being restricted to women,” he said.
Mr. Surendran said that the State should accept that its moves to facilitate entry of young women in Sabarimala on the pretext of implementing the SC judgment had been defeated.
“The Chief Minister, who now claims that the government is in no hurry to implement the directive, has backtracked from his earlier stance. He is answerable to the public for having imposed prohibitory orders in the region for the first time. Besides, there has been an steep fall in the number of devotees,” he said.
Mr. Surendran also alleged that the State government had foisted five false cases against him.
