Sabarimala issue is getting out of hand, says Congress leader Chandy

The Congress leader said the government was treating devotees trekking to the Sabarimala temple as terrorists. “All are in a race to make their trekking miserable,” he said.

Senior Congress leader Oommen Chandy on Tuesday accused the adamant Left-led government in Kerala of handling the issue at the Sabarimala temple ineptly and said the hilltop shrine to Lord Ayyappa has suffered badly because of the controversy.

(Vivek Nair/HT Photo)

Chandy, the Congress’ general secretary, is leading a march of the United Democratic Front (UDF) to the hilltop shrine, which will flout the prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPc).

The Congress leader said the government was treating devotees trekking to the Sabarimala temple as terrorists. “All are in a race to make their trekking miserable,” he said.

“How can the government impose section 144 in a place of worship? It is never heard of in the history of any temple,” Chandy said.

Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala sought the immediate withdrawal of the prohibitory orders in place after several incidents of violence was reported from the temple and the base camps following the Supreme Court order allowing women of all ages to enter the shrine.

The situation at the hilltop shrine was peaceful on Tuesday after Sunday night’s incident, two days after the temple had opened on Friday evening for the 62-day annual pilgrimage season as the stand-off continued over the entry of menstrual age women into the shrine following the top court’s order on September 28. More than 70 devotees were arrested late on Sunday for flouting prohibitory orders outside the Sabarimala temple.

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The row has also affected the footfall of pilgrims to the temple. Nearly a lakh pilgrims throng the temple at this time but only 7,000 trekked to the hilltop from 3am to 6am. Revenue of the temple has also dwindled drastically, officials said.

Officials of the state human rights commission are also visiting the temple to look into the problems the pilgrims are facing.

The Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) on Monday moved the Supreme Court asking for more time to implement its order that lifted a decades-old ban on women of menstruating age from entering the Sabarimala temple.

The board, a statutory body under the Kerala government that runs the hilltop shrine, cited the inability to provide adequate facilities and infrastructure to women pilgrims and violence that broke out in the state after the local government attempted to follow the verdict as the two main reasons in its petition.

It said unprecedented security arrangements by the government, which has said it will implement the SC order despite protests by devotees and political outfits, have not been able to discourage agitators from threatening and stopping women from worshipping at the temple.