Over 2,300 police personnel, including 200 women and 20 commandoes, are spending the night on pins and needles in and around the Sabarimala temple in Kerala on a day India flaunted a nuclear-propelled submarine called Arihant or the “destroyer of enemies” .
The mission of the 2,300 men and women in one of the most progressive states in 21st century India: ensure that if women, even one woman, want to pray at the temple, they should be able to do so in keeping with a Supreme Court order.
Till Monday night, the mission had not been accomplished in spite of the stated resolve of the CPM-led state government to uphold the law.
Ranged against the law enforcers are hundreds of “devotees”, led by a teacher and self-styled champion of Hindutva known for making some of the most inflammatory speeches in the state.
Their objective is to ensure that no woman of childbearing age enters the temple although the Supreme Court has said such a ban is unconstitutional and a form of untouchability.
A homemaker in her thirties did turn up with a wish to enter the temple but her resolve appeared to be under stress as night fell.
Security personnel stand guard as temple priests walk towards the Sabarimala temple on Monday. (PTI)
The immediate “provocation” for the chant was the appearance of the homemaker, Anju, with her husband and two children at the base camp with a wish to enter the temple.
While the temple opened at 5pm under tight security never seen before, Anju approached the police station in Pampa at 5.30pm.
Within an hour of the news of Anju’s arrival, about 100 devotees led by Sasikala, the president of the Kerala Hindu Aikyavedi, began a protest outside the temple.
Since the temple closes at 10pm after the evening rituals and the hill shrine is an arduous 5km trek through the forest, Anju and her family were kept at a police control room.
At night, Malayalam media reported that Anju had told the police it was her husband Abhilash who wanted her to visit the temple and that she was ready to go back home. But sources said Abhilash was not willing to return without entering the temple with his wife and children.
The sources said that if Abhilash agreed, the police would arrange for their safe passage to the family’s home in Cherthala, some 80km away. Local media reports said the police had spoken to the family’s relatives, who could be on their way to Sabarimala.
The temple was to reopen at 4am. The standoff is certain to survive the night and continue till 11pm on Tuesday, when the narrow window for worship at the Lord Ayyappa temple would close, to reopen in a less than a fortnight for the peak season that draws countless pilgrims till mid-January.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi marked the completion of the country’s nuclear triad by announcing that INS Arihant (the “destroyer of enemies”) had successfully completed its first deterrence patrol. Modi described it as a fitting response to those who indulge in “nuclear blackmail”.
The “devotees” holding the vigil describe their response as spontaneous and apolitical but during the day footage emerged that showed the Kerala BJP president describing the Sabarimala controversy as a “golden opportunity”.
P.S. Sreedharan Pillai, the chief of the BJP in a state that has been proving hard for the Sangh parivar to crack, is also heard disclosing that the temple’s custodian of rituals consulted him before issuing a notorious threat to shut the shrine if women aged 10 to 50 tried to enter it.
The priest had issued the threat last month when the temple had opened for a few days and one day, it appeared that the police would succeed in escorting a woman to the temple. Faced with the priest’s ultimatum, the police had abandoned the effort.
A few women had tried to enter the temple when it opened for the monthly rituals on October 17 but were blocked by protesters in the guise of “devotion”.
At 10pm on Monday, when the doors of the sanctum sanctorum closed, the “devotees” and K.P. Sasikala Teacher (many public figures in Kerala are teachers and the profession becomes the surname over time) were chanting prayers.
