Wanting to storm Sabarimala was just another day in office for Trupti Desai

File image of social activist Trupti Desai | Facebook

Trupti Desai insists her protests are not a ‘publicity stunt’, says her ‘honest’ work for rights is what’s getting her media recognition.

Mumbai: Last Friday, 33-year-old women’s rights activist Trupti Desai attempted to storm Kerala’s controversial Sabarimala Temple. Instead, she ended up spending the day at Kochi airport amid tight security, as a throng of protestors prevented her from exiting the terminal.

But it was just another day in office for Desai, founder of the Bhumata Brigade, which she formed to campaign for the rights of women, farmers, labourers and other oppressed.

One day, she leads a bike rally in Pune, blaring slogans for women safety, on another, she is at Kolhapur’s Mahalaxmi temple, planning protests against the temple management’s diktat to impose a dress code. On yet another day, she threatens to force-feed liquor to Maharashtra excise minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule, for reportedly talking about the possibility of online delivery of liquor.

In between, Desai is an ever-present face in media interviews, and also broadcasts live on Facebook her opinions and protest plans.

A case in point was when, in a post-midnight Facebook live video on 25 September, Desai sat on the floor eating dinner with six women from her team. The firebrand said she and her team members planned to meet chief minister Devendra Fadnavis to seek official recognition for leading the protests to allow women inside the inner sanctum of the Shani Shingnapur temple, among other issues.

One by one, she asked her followers, sitting around her with dinner plates in their hands, to reiterate the demand on camera. They followed suit, saying how their ‘tai’ (older sister) should get credit for abolishing a 400-year-old tradition.

A few critics dismiss all this as a publicity stunt, an allegation Desai steadfastly rejects.
“The media itself came and started giving us coverage. We keep getting publicity because we work honestly,” Desai told ThePrint.

“No one will try to pull publicity stunts that involve genuine threat to life,” she said, recounting how a priest at Kolhapur’s Mahalaxmi temple had once attempted to choke her, while her detractors flung spice mixed in ‘haldi-kumkum’ (a mix of turmeric and vermillion powder) at her eyes.

Rise to fame

The eldest of three siblings, Desai was born in the Nipani taluka of Maharashtra’s Kolhapur district, close to the Karnataka border. Her family moved to Pune when she was still young. She now lives in Pune with her businessman husband Prashant Desai and a young son.

She catapulted to fame when she and her supporters made several attempts to enter the inner sanctum of Ahmednagar’s Shani Shingnapur temple, until the age-old practice was reversed and the management started allowing women inside the sanctum. Desai says she took up the cause when she heard that a purification ritual was performed at the shrine after a woman accidentally entered the inner sanctum and prayed.

A number of Right-wing groups have targeted her for being against the Hindu religion and disrespecting its customs and traditions by trying to force a change. Some have even dismissed her as an atheist. Her sartorial style screams ‘rebel’ — a kurta topped with a sleeveless buttoned-up coat; her hair worn short.

However, her house, which is also her office, is lined with photographs of various deities.

“My andolan has got nothing to do with religion. It is about equality. I even went and joined Muslim women in their protest for access inside the inner sanctum of the Haji Ali dargah in Mumbai,” Desai said.

‘Not interested in fighting elections’

Desai had contested the 2012 elections to the Pune Municipal Corporation on a Congress ticket and lost heavily. As she stood at Kochi airport Friday, the BJP’s IT cell head Amit Malviya recalled this, tweeting: “Trupti Desai who protested 400-year-old tradition of Shani Shingnapur temple contested election on a Congress ticket. So now we know.”

However, Desai denies having any political ambitions.

“I am not associated with any party today, and while many say Trupti Desai wants to fight elections, I am not interested,” she said.

Desai has still not formally registered the Bhumata Brigade. She says she was told by the charity commissioner that her team often resorts to aggressive means, and fears this could lead to her organisation being deregistered.

However, she defended these aggressive means, saying: “Yes, we can be aggressive sometimes. I deliberately decided to call us the Bhumata Brigade, like a brigade in an army. Fearless.”