Ahead of Sabarimala doors reopening for pilgrimage season, Kerala Govt heightens security

On Saturday at 5 PM, the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple will once again open its gates for the two-month-long Mandala-Makaravilakku pilgrimage season amidst heavy security. This comes just two days after the Supreme Court referred the matter of entry of women to a Larger 7-judge bench to examine the issues of women’s entry into any house of worship including Muslim women’s entry to mosques while reviewing the previous order of allowing women into Sabarimala shrine. In 2018, when the Supreme Court had ordered that women of all age groups should be allowed entry, massive protests broke out across the State by devotees, some of which resulted in violence. To avert a repeat of the situation, the Kerala Government has deployed heavy security forces. Thousands of devotees, who have started gathering en route to the shrine, have been stopped at Nilackal and will be allowed to proceed only after 2 PM. Just around the shrine and in bases like Pamba and Nilackal, a total of 10,017 police personnel will be deployed to ensure the volatile situation does not get out of hand. 

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Security Apparatus 

DG and IGP of Kerala, Loknath Behara, who is overseeing the security arrangements said deployed 24 Superintendents and Assistant SPs of Police, 112 DSPs, 264 inspectors, 1,185 Sub-Inspectors and 8,402 police officers in sensitive areas like the Sannidhanam, Pamba, Nilackal, and Pathanamthitta. The State Government has toned down its stance from last year and is proceeding with caution. Devaswom Minister Kadakampally Surendran has said that the Sabarimala shrine is ‘not a place for activism the government would not encourage women seeking publicity’. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan too seems to have watered down his previously vehement stand of women’s entry and has said, ‘As far as we understand the 2018 verdict has not stayed. However, we have to study the verdict. Wait till we study it. We still need clarity on what we have to do’. 

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No clearance on entry so far 

Sources in the Kerala Government indicate that the dilution of the stand of both the government and the CPI(M) is primarily because of the drubbing the party received in the Lok Sabha elections where the Congress-led UDF won 19 of the 20 seats, with the ruling LDF managing to win just one. An internal survey reportedly conducted reportedly suggested that supporters of the Left too felt abandoned by the hardstand the party took in haste in 2018 regarding Sabarimala, without proper consultation. The results of the survey caused a split in the CPM’s Kerala unit with many senior leaders placing the blame squarely on CM Vijayan.  While the SC has not stayed the previous order allowing women of all age groups to enter, the Kerala Government, this time, has refused to give security to women who want to enter. While over 30 women have applied for permission to enter the shrine, so far nobody has been given clearance nor given assurance, even as activist Trupti Desai claiming that after last year’s futile attempt, this time to she will try to enter the temple even without security.

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