Thiruvananthapuram: Former Union minister and lone BJP MLA in the Kerala assembly, O Rajagopal, Friday said that the Sabarimala protests were against the police high-handedness and not against the women’s entry issue.
“The protests at Sabarimala were not over the women’s entry issue,” he told a TV channel, adding that they were against the lack of basic amenities at the hill-top shrine. BJP state chief P S Sreedharan Pillai had earlier declared that they were halting the protests at Sabarimala and taking it to the front of the secretariat here, a move which the Opposition Congress has dubbed as a compromise between the ruling LDF and the right-wing parties.
“The agitation in front of the secretariat is BJP’s political protest. Shifting to the secretariat was part of intensifying the protest and not compromising,” Rajagopal said. Pillai had expressed similar views and said that the Sabarimala protests was against the CPI(M)-led LDF government and not against the Supreme Court decision, allowing entry of women of all age groups into the shrine.
Meanwhile, BJP leader and Rajya Sabha MP V Muraleedharan said that no BJP leader or worker would agree to compromise with the CPI(M) on the protest. “None of the BJP leaders and workers, who have self-respect, will agree to compromise the Sabarimala protest,” he said.
However, it was learnt that the state RSS unit was also unhappy with the BJP leadership over the manner in which the arrest of party’s state general secretary K Surendran was dealt with. Pillai had earlier faced flak from within his party over the lack of vigor in protests against the arrest of Surendran from the base camp at Nilackal.
The Supreme Court will hear in open court on 22 January a batch of review petitions on the matter. The top court had on 28 September paved the way for entry of women of all ages into the Sabarimala temple, saying that the ban on entry of menstrual age women amounted to gender discrimination.
Surendran was once again denied bail in a case related to the attack on a 52-year-old woman who came to visit the shrine during the Chithira Atta festival earlier this month. Meanwhile, the Pathanamthitta distirct administration, under which Sabarimala falls, has extended the prohibitory orders till 4 December.
The shrine has been under a heavy security blanket since 17 November, the day when it was opened for the annual two-month-long pilgrimage season. Police had said that the restriction was in the backdrop of the frenzied protests witnessed at the shrine over the state government’s decision to implement the 28 September apex court order.