A state-wide dawn-to-dusk hartal has been called in Kerala on Thursday in protest against the entry of two women below 50 years into the Sabarimala hill shrine early Wednesday morning.

Localised 'wild cat' hartals are already in force at a number of places after Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan confirmed the entry of Bindu and Kanakadurga, both belonging to Kerala, into the temple. "They (the women) had attempted to undertake the arduous climb to the hill shrine earlier in the season but had to give up in the face of protests by devotees and activists of the Sangh Parivar affiliates," he said.

Women of the child-bearing are traditionally not allowed darshan at the hill shrine, though the Supreme Court had in a historic verdict on September 28, 2017 had thrown open the temple to women devotees of all ages. This event has brought this back into focus after a lull.

 

Temporarily closed

The Sabarimala shrine was closed after it was confirmed that the two women had entered the sanctum sanctorum.

At 10:30 AM, the officiating priest closed the shrine after having been directed by the Tantri (the head priest), reports reaching here from Sabarimala said. 

The shrine was reopened an hour later after a 'shudhi kriya' (purification rituals) was performed. The break happens even as big crowds of pilgrims wait to offer their prayers the run-up to the crucial 'Makaravilakku' festival. The pilgrims have been removed from the immediate premises and may not be allowed back before the purification rituals conclude, reports said.

Calls for strike

Separate calls for day-long hartals have been given out by the Sabarimala Karma Samithi and the Antharashtra Hindu Parishad, an active member of the 'Save Sabarimala' campaign.

The Sangh Parivar units and the RSS-NDA-BJP have demanded that traditions and rituals at Sabarimala be maintained at all costs, mobilising large numbers of devotees in support.

This saw pitched battles between them and the police in coinciding with the annual festival season but the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government stood firm with its resolve to enforce the court order.

The protests were later withdrawn from Sabarimala and the neighbourhood, and the BJP has launched a relay hunger strike in front of the Secretariat here, which has now entered its second month.

PM pitches in

It is in this context that protests have broken out afresh, and promises to sustain for a prolonged period if statements from the state BJP leadership and Parivar outfits are any indication.

It was only a day ago that Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself came out in public with his first comments on the issue saying that the Sabarimala issue pertained to keeping traditions as they are. As part of the mobilisation around the issue in an election year, the Prime Minister would address a rally at Pathanamthitta in the foothills later this month.

The development comes also a day after the ruling LDF organised a government-sponsored 'Women's Wall' in support of the court verdict throwing open the temple doors to all women.

Earlier in November and December, Sabarimala and neighbourhood had witnessed grave law and order situations after young women launched themselves on the pilgrim trek with police support.

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