Kollam Thulasi, a Malayalam movie actor on Friday while sharing the stage with the BJP state president said that those women who enter the Sabarimala temple should be torn into two.
He added that people should chant Ayyappa keerthanams so loud that the ear drums of the Chief Minister Sreedharan Pillai should rupture, said a report of the Indian Express.
“Also, the idiots in the Supreme Court should hear the chanting,” he said.
Thulasi who is a BJP member and was the party candidate from Kundra in Kollam during the 2016 assembly elections told the crowd at the event: “You mothers should go to Sabarimala. Because some women will come there. They should be torn into two pieces. One portion should be thrown to Delhi and another to the room of the chief minister. I know, you are not going… because you are all educated and sensible… Ayyappan has started working.. the mind of Devaswom minister has started changing.’’
The event was one of the many organised by temple stakeholders and BJP-led agitators as part of their campaign to prevent the entry of women. Also the erstwhile Royal Family, which owned the temple before Travancore Devaswom Board too over, said that the faithful will prevent the entry of women into the temple.
“Our agitation is not backed by any political party or organisation. However, we are getting support from the faithful. Women will not be allowed to go to the shrine. They would be blocked at all roads leading to the hill shrine. The protest is not limited to any region. Even outside Kerala, there is strong resentment against implementing the SC verdict,’’ said royal family member R R Varma.
Recently, The Supreme Court of India ruled that women, irrespective of age, can enter Kerala’s Sabarimala temple. A five-judge Constitution bench, headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, said that the provision in the Kerala Hindu Places of Public Worship (Authorisation of Entry) Rules, 1965, which authorised the restriction, violated the right of Hindu women to practice religion.
The bench, also including Justices R F Nariman, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra, also said that patriarchy in religion cannot be allowed to trump the right to pray.
Justice Malhotra gave a dissenting judgment, stating, “the issue is critical to various religions. Issues of deep religious sentiments should not be ordinarily be interfered by the Court. The Sabarimala shrine and the deity is protected by Article 25 of Constitution of India and the religious practices cannot be solely tested on the basis of Article 14.”