Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s statement on Tuesday that women of all ages should be allowed entry into Sabarimala temple may have confounded the narrative of the party unit in Kerala.
Although, Gandhi categorised his statement as a personal view, the State-unit had thrown its weight with the cause of the devotees and insisted on a status quo at the hill shrine.
While holding forth on gender equality, Gandhi reportedly said he knew his stance was against the stated position of the Kerala unit. It was unfair to prevent women of a certain age group from entering the shrine.
The Supreme Court had stated in its verdict on September 27 that women should be free to move just as men.
Since the party in the State represents people, he has allowed the State unit to have its go. Observers feel that the party chief himself may have handed rivals a stick to beat the party.
‘Soft Hindutva’
The Congress has been pushing a soft Hindutva as the Sabarimala issue began to heat up, and was roundly mocked by the Left Democratic Front government for being a proxy for the BJP-RSS.
The party found itself nowhere after the BJP-RSS and the LDF government led by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan took extreme positions, making it increasingly irrelevant.
‘Poll strategy’
Ramesh Chennithala, Congress Leader of Opposition in State, and K Sudhakaran, working president, publically aired their views favouring the devotees after they saw small groups of women reciting Ayyappa chants gain traction.
The state of utter confusion and indecision came a full circle on Tuesday with the Congress president throwing up his arms to allow the State unit to have its say.
But some analysts view this as a planned strategy to keep the electorate confused till the 2019 Lok Sabha elections .