Thiruvananthapuram
\nA day after devotees opposing entry of women into the Sabarimala Temple clashed with the police at Nilackal, the Kerala government on Thursday charged that the RSS was trying to \u201cdestroy\u201d the Lord Ayyappa shrine by \u201cunleashing terror\u201d.<\/p>\n
The BJP, however, countered the allegation, saying the CPI(M)-led LDF government was trying to tarnish the Ayyappa Temple and was responsible for creating tension at the holy shrine.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The saffron groups\u2019 attempt was to destroy this basic quality of the hill shrine and the present developments could be seen as part of that move.<\/p>\n
\u201cRSS is trying to destroy the Lord Ayyappa shrine by unleashing terror,\u201d the Chief Minister alleged.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe final objective of the Sangh Parivar forces is to establish the upper caste dominance by destroying the acceptance enjoyed by all sections of the society at the shrine,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Making it clear that the government would not allow the temple to be turned into a \u201criot zone\u201d, he said any attempt to check people from trekking the holy hills would be dealt with.<\/p>\n
Reacting to developments at Sabarimala, BJP state president P S Sreedharan Pillai on Thursday demanded a judicial probe into the circumstances that led to the violence and lathicharge by police against protesters at Nilackal, the base camp.<\/p>\n
The protesters were opposing the state government\u2019s decision to implement the Supreme Court order, permitting women of all age groups into the Lord Ayyappa shrine.<\/p>\n
Pillai said the police had \u201cdeliberately\u201d triggered provocation and turned Sabarimala into a \u201cwar zone\u201d.<\/p>\n
He also alleged that police personnel had destroyed the make-shift shelter put by the devotees to conduct their prayer meeting protest at Nilackal.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also saw on TV, the policemen threw away the framed pictures of Lord Ayyappa,\u201d Pillai charged and questioned the police action of arresting and evicting even senior members of tantri family and Pandalam Palace who were conducting a peaceful protest at Pamba.<\/p>\n
He said the party would continue its support to the devotees and protest at Nilackal till October 22, the day when the Ayyappa shrine would be closed.<\/p>\n
Criticising the decision of the police to impose prohibitory orders under Section 144 at Sannidhanam, Nilackal and Pamba, the BJP leader said the matter would be brought before the Centre.<\/p>\n
Why were the media persons attacked? All these things have to be inquired. So, we demand a judicial probe into the incidents,\u201d he told reporters here.<\/p>\n
The Left government should have placed before the Supreme Court sentiments of women devotees of Lord Ayyappa, Pillai added.<\/p>\n
Addressing media, Devaswom Minister Kadakampally Surendran said, \u201cFascist forces were behind the violence and the government has no ulterior motive in implementing the Apex court order.\u201d During the press meeting, Surendran released an audio tape purportedly by a Hindu activist asking his followers to come to Sabarimala by wearing the sacred bead chain and customary \u201cirumudikkikettu\u201d to defy prohibitory orders.<\/p>\n
Senior BJP leader and the party\u2019s lone MLA in the state Assembly, O Rajagopal wanted the government to convene a special assembly session to discuss the developments of the Sabarimala issue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thiruvananthapuram A day after devotees opposing entry of women into the Sabarimala Temple clashed with the police at Nilackal, the Kerala government on Thursday charged that the RSS was trying to \u201cdestroy\u201d the Lord Ayyappa shrine by \u201cunleashing terror\u201d. The BJP, however, countered the allegation, saying the CPI(M)-led LDF government was trying to tarnish the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44757,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[312,315],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-india","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44756"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44756\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44758,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44756\/revisions\/44758"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}