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‘Will enter Sabarimala temple on Nov 17’, announces activist Trupti Desai
Trupti Desai, founder of the Bhumata Brigade, had fought for the entry of women in the Shani Shingnapur temple in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra, an incident that triggered many similar campaigns.
Women’s rights activist Trupti Desai on Wednesday announced her intention to enter Kerala’s Sabrimala temple on November 17, the day the shrine opens for the two-month long annual pilgrim season.
This comes on the day the Supreme Court refused to stay its September 28 verdict allowing women of all ages into the Ayyappa temple and told the petitioner to ‘wait till January 22, when the top court will hear a bunch of review petitions.
Trupti Desai, founder of the Bhumata Brigade, has written to Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan seeking security for her visit on November 17, reports ANI.
“We will come to Sabarimala and will enter the temple as permitted by the Supreme Court,” Desai earlier told Malayalam news Channel Mathrubhumi
As the leader of the Bhumata Ranragini Brigade, Pune-based Desai had fought for the entry of women in the Shani Shingnapur temple in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra.
This was seen as an important landmark in the movement for women’s rights in the country and the incident triggered similar campaigns at other famous shrines in the country where women have been prohibited from going inside the sanctum sanctorum.
The shrine dedicated to Lord Ayyappa has been at the centre of high drama and tension following the top court order, with women trying to enter the shrine and devotees bent upon blocking them.
No woman was able to enter the hill shrine despite an army of securitymen accompanying them and the situation came to a head when the tantri threatened to quit and shut the temple gates if any woman came anywhere near the sanctum sanctorum.
Two women, Kavitha Jakkal and Rehana Fatima, in full riot gear and within minutes of the temple were forced to retreat.
The September 28 verdict by a five-judge constitution bench headed by then Chief Justice Dipak Misra, in its 4:1 verdict, had lifted the centuries-old ban on the entry of women aged between 10 and 50 into the temple, saying that it amounted to gender discrimination.
However, it had been opposed strongly in the state, with devotees claiming it flouted traditions of the temple, whose presiding deity, Lord Ayyappa, is considered celibate.
