Commenting on my own
article ‘Nero fiddled while Rome burnt’, published on 4th November
2018 at http://www.vijayvaani.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?aid=4849, I had written ‘I cannot say if the apex court
judgment in the hands of Pinarayi led Government can be compared to a bouquet
of flowers in the hands of a monkey or a murderous weapon in the hands of a serial
murderer. The fact remains that the fear of their rights related to their faith
being violated is writ large and there has been reports of protests from
devotees even in far away Australia, Canada and the US of A.’
The events that followed
the opening of the hill shrine for 5 days from the evening of 17th November,
for one day on 5th November and the annual pilgrimage season,
extending till mid January 2019, on 17 November has now exposed what a farce of
a democracy have been gifted to us through a Constitution, which has been
rightly criticized as a plagiarized version of the Government of India Act,
1935, enacted by the colonial rulers to grant limited self governance for the
locals.
The Chief Minister of
Kerala, a Marx follower, is now being referred to as Kerala Stalin with
adequate justification. The way he has neglected the flood victims, a
significant number of whom are still in relief camps, even after 3 months of
the flood, his foreign jaunts for almost a month during this period, his failure
to implement apex court orders in many cases, from implementing a minimum pay
for nurses to handing over a church from one denomination to another, his
effort to circumvent the apex court orders on banning admission to two medical
colleges by issuing an ordinance, failure to investigate a party MLA accused as
a molester by a woman victim of his own party…the list is long and enough to
question his intentions when he has concentrated his efforts to ensure a woman
of objectionable age (as per the devotees) is taken to Sabarimala.
The gross error in the
majority judgment of the apex court has already been explained in detail in my
article quoted earlier. What was left unsaid was that even before the temple
opened for the first time after the verdict, in Oct, there had been filed two
review petitions-one by the Nair Service Society through its advocate, K
Parasaran on 8th October and another by All Kerala Brahmins Association through Adv
Sanand Ramakrishnan on 13th
October 2018. The court decided to take up these petitions only on 13th
November 2018, just three days before the annual pilgrimage season was to
start. And on that day, after hearing the parties in the Chamber, it was
decided to hear the petitions, now almost 50 in number, only on 22 January 2019,
after the temple closes at the end of the season. To add insult to injury the
court made it clear that there was no stay on the original order.
Whatever has happened
during the periods when the temple had opened will forever remain a blotch on
any democratic government, even if it is a Marxist Party led one. It appears
that the Pinarayi Vijayan led government is at war with the majority of its
citizens, particularly the devotees of Lord Ayyappa. Forget about repairing the
assets damaged by the floods, even the available facilities, including drinking
water and toilets, were denied to the devotees reaching the shrine after long
journeys and an arduous trek through forest track in a mountainous terrain. The
dormitory accommodation available in the temple premises were also denied to
the devotees. It was an agonizing and outrageous sight to see children sleeping
near garbage bins, out of sheer exhaustion.
Immediately after the
temple closed on 6th November, a video clip went viral on social
media of the young District Collector of Patthanamthitta, P B Nooh, under whose
jurisdiction Sabarimala is situated, ticking off the staff of the Tranvancore
Devaswam Board for the lack of maintenance of the available facilities and
unpreparedness for the forthcoming season that was just round the corner. But
as current reports suggest, nothing had been done after that.
Leaders of groups who were
I the forefront of peaceful protests earlier but were now on the way to the
temple as normal devotees have been arrested. While Sasikala teacher, State
president of Viswa Hindu Parishad, was let off by the Court of the RDO, K
Surendran, General Secretary of State BJP, has been remanded to 14 days in
custody. It is as if the Chief Minister is directly, and only, supervising the
Police Raj at Sabarimala. The efforts to gag the media were foiled by just one
channel, Janam TV, approaching the High Court of Kerala and getting orders
forbidding government interference in media covering the events in and around
Sabarimala.
Ever since the demolition
of Babari Masjid there have been threats to both the temples at Guruvayur and
Sabarimala, especially on the anniversaries of the event on 6th
December. And now with the apex court order permitting women of the age group
10 to 50 to visit the shrine and the public protest against it, Pinarayi
Vijayan is on strong wicket as far as the deployment of the large number of
police personnel is concerned. But as it happens usually, it is always a
question of misuse of powers for devious purposes that have been the bane of
law enforcement in this country. While devotees are harassed in every possible
way, including the denial of the right to perform the most cherished ritual of
anointing the idol with the ghee brought by them filled in coconuts, the police
have reportedly ordered even the insufficient food stalls to shut down after
the temple hours. On the flip side they themselves have been ordered to wear
their shoes, belt, caps etc as per regulations (which had not been there
earlier). Silly as it may seem, they have also been ordered not to address the
devotees as Swamy or Malikappuram, which are the traditional forms of
addressing the devotees once they begin their vrat till they return after
offering their prayers at the temple.
Central intelligence agencies
have reportedly indicted the State Government. Central ministers are expected
to visit the shrine soon to study the ground realities personally. But how
effectively they will be able to intervene remains to be seen. The fact that
the apex court could issue such a blatantly unconstitutional order (yes, I
repeat, it is blatantly unconstitutional as it violates the fundamental right
to religion as enunciated in Article 26 of the Constitution and has not abrogated
Article 25(2)(b) which is applicable to only Hindu institutions and thus
violative of the much touted right to equality.) an elected Chief Minister
could strive to drive the citizens of his state into near revolt cannot be
dismissed easily without recognizing the faultlines of our Constitution and the
lack of the much needed checks and balances.
18 Nov 2018
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