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Kerala withdraws cases against Sabarimala and citizenship law protesters
While the Congress lauded the decision, the BJP said the temple issue should not be conflated with the citizenship law protests.
The Kerala government on Wednesday decided to withdraw cases related to Sabarimala and Citizenship (Amendment) Act protests which are not of criminal nature. Earlier, the state government was against withdrawing cases.
While the Congress lauded the decision, the BJP said the temple issue should not be conflated with the citizenship law protests.
“We welcome the move. We have been demanding it quite some time,” said opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala.
“It is wrong to club the temple issue with the CAA. We want all cases to be withdrawn. Other than police atrocities no other violence took place during the stir,” said BJP state president K Surendran who is facing more than 200 cases. He was jailed for a month during the agitation.
Recently the Nair Service Society, a socio-cultural body of upper caste Nair community, had written a letter to chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan asking him to withdraw cases against devotees who took part in hymn-chanting protests during the temple agitation in 2018.
At the height of the agitation at least 50,000 cases were registered against devotees who protested the government decision to implement the Supreme Court verdict that allowed women of all ages to enter the hilltop temple.
In 2018, the state had witnessed large-scale violence and five shutdowns after the Supreme Court ended a centuries-old ban on the entry of women of all ages at the Ayyappa temple. It was for the first time in the history of the state that over 50,000 people were booked in connection with Sabarimala protest.
With assembly elections round the corner (April-May), the temple issue has again come to the centrestage.
Last month, former Congress chief minister Oommen Chandy had written to CM Pinarayi Vijayan, asking him to withdraw the state government’s earlier affidavit that favoured the entry of women of all ages.
In the letter, Chandy also said the government’s affidavit had created much confusion which ultimately led to the five-bench verdict in 2018.
After protests in 2019, the Supreme Court had referred 60-odd review petitions questioning the verdict to a nine-member bench.
