With a nine-member bench of the Supreme Court scheduled to begin hearing petitions for and against the review of the 2018 apex court verdict allowing women of all ages to enter the Sabarimala temple on April 7, Kerala’s Pinarayi Vijayan-led government is expected to make its stand on the highly sensitive issue ahead of assembly elections.
Kerala government cannot follow CPI(M) line on Sabarimala issue, says party leaderAfter the Supreme Court’s landmark 2018 order allowing even women of menstruating age to enter hill temples, efforts by the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government to implement the ruling led to massive clashes between faithful and police, statewide protests and dozens of lawsuits filed. A year later, in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led LDF was defeated, winning only one of the 20 parliamentary seats — largely attributed to discontent among Hindus against the Left government.
Reacting to the recent developments, Kerala Law Minister and senior CPI(M) leader P Rajeev said the seven fundamental questions framed by the Supreme Court on the Sabarimala issue cannot be answered with a simple, objective yes or no.
“The government stands to protect the faith of fans. But there is enough time (for us) to clarify our position in the Supreme Court. It is a complex constitutional issue and cannot be answered with yes or no,” he said.
However, CPI(M) state secretary MV Govindan indicated that the party and the government need not have the same stand on the Sabarimala issue. “The government does not always need to look at the party or ideological line taken by the CPI(M) or the LDF on governance issues,” he said.
At the same time, prominent community organizations like the Nair Service Society (NSS) and Sri Narayana Dharma Paripalan (SNDP) Yogam have urged the state to take the right decision on behalf of the faithful.
“In the years since the verdict, the LDF government has taken steps to protect temple customs at Sabarimala. Hence, the NSS does not understand that the government will reverse that position if the Supreme Court accepts the petitions in April,” NSS general secretary G Sukumaran Nair told reporters.
SNDP general secretary Vellapalli Natesan expressed confidence that the LDF government would stand up to protect temple customs. “The 2018 verdict was disappointing. Traditionally, entry of women of all age groups in temples has not been done for years and now it is not right to enforce it,” he said.
