Conflict

Sabarimala Temple to open at 5 pm today, protestors block woman activist from exiting Cochin airport

PROTESTORS OUTSIDE COCHIN AIRPORT. IMAGE COURTESY: INDIAN EXPRESS

Kerala’s famed Sabarimala Temple opens at 5 pm today evening for the “Mandala Makkaravillakku” two-month puja, amid an incident of protestors having blocked activist Trupti Desai from exiting the Cochin airport to visit the shrine.

Desai is a social activist who had announced that she would lead a group of women to the shrine and had approached the police for protection.

Meanwhile, the all- party meeting headed by Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday failed to arrive at a consensus as opposition parties in the state- Congress-led UDF and BJP- staged a ‘walk out’ terming the meeting a “drama”.

The agitations and tensions arrive at a time when uptil now, since the September 28 verdict of the Supreme Court of India striking down on restrictions barring women of menstrual age to enter the shrine, no woman had been allowed by the protestors to enter the temple.

The apex court, on November 13, had refused to stay its September order and fixed the date for hearing review petitions on January 22. There are over 48 petitions seeking a review of the order.

Activist Rahul Easwar, who is protesting outside the Cochin airport has said that ‘Trupti Desai should go back. She will have to step on our chests and walk over us if she wants to enter #SabarimalaTemple’, ANI reported.

Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen on Twitter questioned the eagerness of women to enter Sabarimala, saying that they should rather enter villages where women are suffering from problems like domestic violence, rape, sexual abuse, hate instead.

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