The Supreme Court of India on September 29, ruled that women of all age groups have the right to enter the Sabarimala Temple in Kerala. However, when the shrine opened for the first time after the ruling on Wednesday, violent groups of men, who claim to be Lord Ayappa’s devotees, attacked several women on the way to the shrine.
The mob even tried to pull a 22-year-old girl out of a bus travelling to the temple. wo to three of us protected my daughter by forming a human shield around her. Thankfully, the police intervened and shut the door of the bus. With their help, we managed to back the vehicle and take it to a nearby bus stand,” said the girl’s father Manoj.
“They tried to pull my 22 yr old daughter from all sides. Me, my father, mother in their 70s, police struggled to save her and reverse the bus. Who insults women like this. I am a Hindu too. I am still shivering”,a father tell @ndtv , how he saved his daughter today. #sabarimala pic.twitter.com/yyQP77YtXC
— Sneha Koshy (@SnehaMKoshy) October 17, 2018
A devotee himself, Manoj vowed to never “make the mistake” of returning to Sabarimala.
“This temple does not seem like a place of worship to us. Hooliganism reigns in this place,” he told the media. “We have never seen women being treated with such hostility. It’s almost as if these people view women as terrorists.”
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The right-wing protestors also attacked several female journalists. CNN News18 journalist Radhika Ramaswamy shared a video of the protestors attacking her vehicle. The reporter later lodged an FIR against the attackers.
A glimpse of how we were heckled by a mob in Nilakkal #sabarimala #SabarimalaShowdown @CNNnews18 pic.twitter.com/M00f9fMBcB
— Radhika Ramaswamy (@radhika1705) October 17, 2018
Journalist Mausami Singh wrote an article detailing how she was hit and pushed around, had stones pelted at her while the video journalist accompanying her was slapped by a violent mob.
“Just when I thought the nightmare was finally over, the people started pelting stones at us. Someone got hold of my hair and pulled at it. It hurt but no one seemed to care… I was hit on the head and then everything went dark for a moment. Next thing I remember was crawling onto the floor of the bus. Sanjay pulled me in,” she narrated.
Republic TV journalist Pooja Prasanna said that she approached at least 20 policemen to help her pass through the mob but none listened to her.
NDTV’s Sneha Koshy was also met with abuses. “While I was reporting from a spot 200 metres towards the temple from the Pamba base camp, the protestors surrounded us, and told me that women of my age should not be here,” she wrote in an article.
1.I had approached at least a 20 police personnel to help us pass through when we were being threatened n intimidated but they all literally and figuratively looked away.2. @Sarithasbalan n I were attacked just 300 mts from where Cong and bjp leaders were protesting. #Sabarimala
— Pooja Prasanna (@PoojaPrasanna4) October 17, 2018
“As I continued to report amid the shouts and the threats, I didn’t feel intimidated by them at all. Then they shifted their attention to the cameraperson, SP Babu, and jostled him into stopping the shoot. But Babu kept the camera live as long as he could. The men blocked the camera and forced us to retreat to the base camp,” she added.
Blocking devotees from proceeding to the Ayyappa Temple and forcing them to return by creating terror were part of the RSS-Sangh Parivar’s move to “destroy” Sabarimala, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan charged in a Facebook post.
The chief minister claimed that right wing forces had always been disturbed due to the unique nature of Sabarimala temple where devotees, irrespective of caste, creed and religion, offer worship.
The saffron groups’ attempt was to destroy this basic quality of the hill shrine and the present developments could be seen as part of that move.
“RSS is trying to destroy the Lord Ayyappa shrine by unleashing terror,”the Chief Minister alleged.
Making it clear that the government would not allow the temple to be turned into a “riot zone”, he said any attempt to check people from trekking the holy hills would be dealt with.