It is a high wire act for the State police to maintain peace at Sabarimala, according to officials.
Their primary attention is to “head off” women activists from using the pilgrim centre as a platform for staging political acts. Senior officials say they are constrained to keep a tab on such activist groups lest their presence provokes forces opposed to the entry of women from disrupting the pilgrimage.
The police are scouring news networks, social media accounts and mobile phone locations to track their movements. They are in touch with other law enforcement agencies to avoid being caught off-guard.
Officials say the police have to negotiate a legal minefield daily. The latest Supreme Court verdict to examine the broader aspects of the entry of women of all age groups to Sabarimala is currently open to several interpretations.
Numerous groups are of the view that the apex court order of 2018 allowing women between the age of 10 and 50 to worship at Sabarimala remains operational. The government feels that the new order has put in abeyance the earlier one. Consequently, it requires the police to turn back women below the age of 50 from worshipping at the temple.
A senior official says the police are acutely aware of the need to strike a balance between the demand of the political executive and the law enforcement’s ultimate accountability to the court. The police have adopted a conflict avoidance strategy that entails reaching out to women activists and also those groups, which seek to deter them.
Law enforcers have apprised both parties of the need to abandon extreme positions and adopt a middle path to avoid unnecessary legal perils. The strategy is perhaps more evident in Pampa where officers counsel women under the age of 50 about the prevailing legal situation in Sabarimala so that they could make an informed choice on whether to trek uphill to the Sannidhanam or turn back on their own volition. The police say the plan has paid off till now.
