Bengaluru: Over a year after the Supreme Court allowed women to enter Kerala’s Sabarimala temple, causing a political storm in the state, there is a virtual status quo, with many women in the ‘banned’ age category staying away from entering the temple.
The Left Democratic Front government says it abides by the Supreme Court ruling, but in the meantime, the BJP, which was spearheading the agitation against the court ruling, seems to have fallen silent.
In September 2018, the Supreme Court had permitted women of menstruating age to enter the temple, going against tradition. The BJP had mounted a major political campaign against the decision, but after it didn’t get any dividends in the Lok Sabha elections earlier this year, the party seems to have gone soft on its campaign. This, in turn, has drawn criticism from influential figures in Kerala society as well as political commentators.
Also read: How saviours of Ayyappa are gaslighting women over Sabarimala
Status quo
The Kerala government, led by CPI(M)’s Pinarayi Vijayan, submitted a report to the Supreme Court in January, stating that 51 women between the age of 10-50 had entered the temple — situated on top of a till and dedicated to Lord Ayyappa — since the landmark judgment was delivered.
But while the government was trying to implement the court’s ruling, BJP workers were physically stopping women, some even over the age of 50, from going up the hill. This seems to have intimidated women between 10 and 50 years of age from entering the temple, despite the government’s insistence that it would protect those who want to visit.
“We have our volunteers stationed near the temples to speak to women below the age of 50 and spread awareness among them not to hurt our sentiments. We have been continuously requesting them to respect our religious sentiments,” Rahul Easwar, the activist who spearheaded the protests, told ThePrint.
The Left’s main political opponent in Kerala, the Congress, had also taken a similar stand to the BJP — that traditions should not be trampled upon. But it did not take part in the protests and demonstrations.
Also read: Forgive me liberal friends, but I can’t completely overlook faith of Sabarimala devotees
No positives for BJP
The BJP invested quite a lot in its Lok Sabha election campaign, particularly in constituencies such as Pathanamthitta (where the temple stands), Alappuzha and Thrissur. But far from winning a seat, the BJP didn’t even finish second in any of the state’s 20 constituencies, except Thiruvananthapuram.
Political commentator J. Prabhash, the former pro-vice-chancellor of the University of Kerala, said the Sabarimala protests had not done any good for the BJP.
“The BJP could not even reach the second position in Pathanamthitta, the constituency that was the heart of the Sabarimala issue. The issue is slowly petering out and it is quite clear that it alone cannot help the BJP clinch seats,” Prabhash said, adding that the BJP does not seem to have a future in the state, at least for the next five years.
Also read: How Hinduism got distorted in the Sabarimala debate
Another big blow
Another blow to the BJP came when G. Sukumaran Nair, chief pontiff of the 104-year-old influential Nair Service Society (NSS), accused the BJP of insincerity towards the faith of the people.
The Nairs constitute about 10-14 per cent of Kerala’s population, and have been extremely vocal against the entry of women of menstruating age.
However, Sukumaran Nair said at the Vijayadashami Nair Summit at Perunna last week, “The BJP has not taken any sincere efforts in protecting the faith of the people.”
Union Minister V. Muraleedharan and former Kerala BJP chief statement refuted Nair’s statement, and called it a “misunderstanding”.
“We will try to convey to Sukumaran Nair what the BJP has done for the devotees. We also hope that he will continue to work for the larger cause of the Hindus and bury all the differences or misunderstandings that may have arisen,” the minister told ThePrint.
Also read: By siding with Sabarimala devotees, Shashi Tharoor has failed the liberal in him
BJP not losing hope
Despite all this, K. Surendran, the Kerala BJP general secretary and the man who came in third in the Pathanamthitta Lok Sabha poll, insisted that the “Sabarimala wave still exists”. He said in the elections, “the anti-Pinarayi sentiment” went in favour of the UDF rather than the BJP.
Surendran added that the fact that then-Congress president Rahul Gandhi contested from Kerala’s Wayanad heavily influenced the voting, since minority votes consolidated in favour of the UDF and Gandhi’s campaign took precedence over Sabarimala.
Muraleedharan added that the Sabarimala issue had actually doubled the BJP’s support base in the state, pointing out that the number of voters polled by the party in Pathanamthitta had almost doubled to three lakh. “This is indicative that the BJP is making good progress in the state,” he said.
Party sources blamed the lack of leadership or a razor-sharp approach for the relative lack of progress, and said they needed a leader like B.S. Yediyurappa or the late Ananth Kumar, who gave the BJP a strong foothold in neighbouring Karnataka.
Also read: What Kerala’s communists stand to gain from two women entering Sabarimala
BJP strategy is same. Either they play with patriotic sentiments or religious sentiments. Ultimately they want to control the nation. That’s it.
The author needs to do a bit of research before writing this kind of articles. The Supreme Court never asked the Kerala Govt. how many persons between the age of 10 to 50 entered the temple. In fact, the list includes women over 50 years of age!
The BJP is very selective when it talks of respect for the courts and their judgments.
The core issue of Sabarimala is Tradition for devotees….But for communist rascals it is of Real estate ….An estate called Cheruvally which is said to be Govts is now with A pastor. It is with rubber plantation…since rubber is not a profitable option needs to change to air port keeping Sabarimala as the pivotal centre….But Sabarimala opens only less than 120 days a year ….So Change the tradition make it a picknic spot …do a real estate business of 38000 Acre land ….that too at at ecologically sensitive area….
For that all the bloody politicians and Meadia …all are together keeping the mask of gender equality …..The print also in the for front to mislead ….It is real eastate ….nothing but real estate ….
Sabarimala or any other mala case, the mentality of the keralaits is not going to change for good! Though they are said to be educated, the education has given violent perspectives to their nature and living, which in turn has led to arrogance and idleness to the people. They have reached saturation point and the male baston want just a quarter or half during the day to survive!
So it is not surprising that doomsday is not far away.