Lakhs of women assembled under the aegis of theLDF on Tuesday to create an almost unbroken human wall that stretched 620 km from Kasaragod in north Kerala to Thiruvananthapuram in the south.
Perhaps, the only jarring gap in the wall of women was at Chettukundu in Kasaragod where suspected Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers unleashed violence against those who tried to line up on the road. The police fired tear gas shells to subdue the mob.
Police officers, journalists, and passers-by came under attack and vehicles were damaged. Law enforcers have diverted traffic away from the spot, which continued to be a conflict zone late into the night. The LDF has pledged to create a wall along the disrupted stretch on Wednesday.
Women from all walks of life participated in the programme, which the LDF had posited as a political counter to Hindu right-wing forces opposed to the entry of women to Sabarimala.
Senior women, homemakers, women clad in hijabs, lawyers, transwomen, actors, artists, doctors, teachers, students, authors, civil servants, unskilled workers, government employees, members of social organisations such as the Kerala Pulayar Maha Sabha and the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana (SNDP) Yogam congregated alongside National Highways. They stood shoulder to shoulder for 15 minutes after 4 p.m. to form a human wall with few apparent cracks in the line.
The programme ended with a joint pledge to harness the power of renaissance principles to insulate society against revanchist forces that sought to push Kerala back to the dark ages of casteism and discriminatory religious practices.
Dissenting voice
The wall of women was not without discord and, if anything, starkly underscored the fault lines of Kerala society. NSS general secretary G. Sukumaran Nair, said that the wall would transform Kerala into a “devil’s own” country riven by social strife. The NSS had opposed the wall. SNDP general secretary Vellappally Natesan said the wall was a riposte to those who sought to turn Kerala into a “madhouse” of caste-based discrimination.
Mr. Nair criticised Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan for intervening in matters of faith while Mr. Natesan defended the government’s stance on fighting revanchist forces.
Health Minister K.K. Shylaja and Brinda Karat, general secretary of the All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA), held either end of the human wall in Kasaragod and Thiruvananthapuram respectively. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Administrative Reforms Commission chairperson V.S. Achuthanandan witnessed the wall in the capital. KPMS president Punnala Sreekumar and Mr. Natesan also participated.
