The BJP’s Kerala unit has decided to “intensify” its Sabarimala agitation days after the state leadership appeared to have watered down its ongoing protest by shifting the focus away from the temple, reflecting the confusion within the party.
The state party has now decided to involve national chief Amit Shah to lend weight to the agitation.
“There is no backing out from what we started. We will go ahead with the protests no matter what restrictions the state government imposes. That’s why we decided to request our national president to make a visit,” a senior party functionary told The Telegraph on Saturday.
The CPM-led state government has made it clear it would enforce the Supreme Court’s September 28 judgment that lifted a centuries-old temple ban on the entry of women of childbearing age.
Kerala BJP chief P.S. Sreedharan Pillai had on Thursday shifted the agitation to the state secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram, 160km from ground zero, angering a powerful faction of the state unit led by Rajya Sabha member V. Muraleedharan and prompting the quick turnaround.
A party meeting held on Friday night also decided to bring in several other central leaders to strengthen the agitation that appeared to have weakened over the past week because of the police presence in and around the hilltop shrine.
A central delegation of Lok Sabha members Saroj Pandey, Prahlad Joshi, Vinod Sonkar and Nalin Kumar Kateel arrived in Kerala on Saturday on a two-day visit. Their brief is to assess the situation at Sabarimala and submit a report to Shah within 15 days.
“We will continue protesting till January 22 (when the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear review petitions against the September judgment),” the party functionary said.
“Waving black flags at all (state) ministers and the chief minister, hunger strike at the secretariat by a state general secretary and violating prohibitory orders in Nilakkal (23km from the temple) are some of the programmes we finalised last night,” he added.
The party also decided to field a senior lawyer to defend state general secretary K. Surendran who has been in jail custody for the past 14 days over Sabarimala-related cases.
The state unit’s decision to “intensify” the agitation had almost an immediate effect as some 50 devotees prevented two women under fifty from Andhra Pradesh from entering the temple on Saturday.
Navodaya, 38, and Krupavati, 42, were intercepted a few kilometres away from the temple. Police escorted them to the safety of the Pampa police outpost around 5km from the shrine.
A police official later said the two had managed to reach so far as they had their heads covered. Sources said that since the two women had arrived in Kerala with a large group of male devotees, the police would send them back once the men complete their pilgrimage.
The police move appeared to be in line with the government’s bid to avoid confrontations till Kerala High Court decides on its plea to set aside two days exclusively for women devotees.
Three men, identified as Subhash, Mahesh and Santosh, have been arrested for violating the prohibitory orders to gather in a group. Mahesh is suspected to have RSS links.
Another leader close to Muraleedharan said Bangalore-based RSS leader B.L. Santosh has been “very closely monitoring” the party’s agitation in Kerala.
Santosh, seen as a possible replacement for Karnataka BJP chief B.S. Yeddyurappa, had taken care of backroom operations when the party rode to power in the state in 2008.
Pratap Simha, Lok Sabha MP from Mysore-Kodagu, had recently tweeted about Santosh’s ability. “If we are seeing Sangh and BJP led Hindu renaissance in Kerala, it’s coz of this man’s sheer effort in last 5 years!” he said.
The party’s Kerala spokesperson, general secretary M.T. Ramesh, could not be reached for comment. Calls to his mobile number went unanswered.
