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BJP begins 'protest day', block roads against arrest of K Surendran

  •   Sun, Nov 18 2018 05:38:02 PM

Thiruvananthapuram, Nov 18(PTI): BJP workers in Kerala blocked highways on Sunday to protest the arrest of party general secretary Surendran, who was taken into custody on Saturday while on his way to the Lord Ayappa shrine

The protestors, including women, squatted on roads, blocking traffic at various places, including in state capital, Kochi, Thrissur, Palakkad and in front of Kottarakara sub-jail, where Surendran has been lodged, and also the northernmost Kasaragod district. In all the places, the protesters were seen clapping and chanting "Swamiyae Ayyappa".

Addressing workers at Thiruvananthapuram, BJP leader M S Kumar said police had so far not succeeded in bringing even a single young woman to the Lord Ayyappa Temple at Sabarimala after the Supreme Court on September 28 allowed women of all age groups to offer prayers at the shrine.

  

While the CPI(M)-led LDF government's stand is that they were constitutionally bound to implement the court order, the main opposition Congress has said they are with the believers.

The BJP, RSS and right-wing outfits have made it clear that they would not allow any woman in the 10-50 age group to offer prayers at the shrine, where the deity is "Naishtika Brahmachari" (perennial celibate). Surendran and two others with him had been taken into preventive custody Saturday night and brought to the Chittar police station, about 50 km from Sabarimala after they forcibly tried to leave for the hill shrine at Sabarimala. Police had cited law and order issues and tense situation at the temple complex to deter him from going to Sabarimala. However, when they insisted, Surendran and the others, all with the "Irrumudikettu" (bundle of offerings for Lord Ayyappa)were taken into preventive custody. They were then produced before the Thiruvlla magistrate, who remanded them to 14-days judicial custody. Surendran was later taken to the Kottarakara sub-jail.

The BJP protest comes a day after the hartal called by the Hindu Aikya Vedi against the preventive custody of their leader K P Sasikala. She was later granted bail. When the Ayyappa temple had opened for monthly pujas in October and early this month, it witnessed a string of protests from frenzied devotees against the entry of young women. A few of them, who made a bid to offer prayers, could not come anywhere close to the holy shrine.

A 46-year-old woman, who arrived from nearby Kazhakootam to go to Sabarimala, was turned back from Chengannur Saturday, following protests from devotees.
  

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Comment on this article

  • RSRB, Kundapura

    Mon, Nov 19 2018

    I pity Kerala Congress party as they are completely sidelined in this matter. They are neither in a position to take any side....

    DisAgree Agree [2] Reply Report Abuse

  • SMR, Karkala

    Mon, Nov 19 2018

    Disregarding the Supreme Court’s pronouncements on the Constitution, as the BJP chief has done, amounts to disobeying the Constitution itself.
    The apex court’s judgment recognises precisely this fact: the freedom to worship under Article 25(1) of the Indian Constitution extends equally to women at Sabarimala. The majority of the bench that delivered the ruling held the exclusion of women did not merit constitutional protection as an essential religious practice. Justice Rohinton Nariman held that even if it were assumed to be an essential religious practice, women’s exclusion was overridden by their right to religious worship under Article 25(1) and was incompatible with Article 25(2)’s agenda of temple entry reform.

    The State of Kerala is bound by the judgment, not only as a party to the case but also by Article 144 of the Constitution which enjoins all civil authorities to “act in aid of the Supreme Court”. Since courts have neither the “sword” nor the “purse”, the “might of the State must stand behind the Court orders”, as the apex court ruled in Daroga Singh, 2004.
    Challenges to judicial authority by BJP leaders are not new. Consider, for example, the Uttar Pradesh government’s feeble attempts to maintain law and order in Ayodhya in 1992, in violation of its affidavit filed before the Supreme Court.
    More recently, the Rajasthan government, contrary to the top court’s orders, initially refused to act against agitators seeking to prevent the release of the film Padmaavat. In the end, though, the government did comply with the orders and made security arrangements for the release of the film.
    By threatening Kerala’s government for enforcing Sabarimala order, Amit Shah breached his oath as MP
    Shah is likely the first head of a ruling party in India to openly call for defying a Supreme Court ruling.
    Why Supreme Court is not asking the government to act for contempt of the court? How is eligible to be Rajya Sabha member without punishment?
    Jai Hind

    DisAgree [1] Agree [2] Reply Report Abuse

  • G R PRABHUJI, Mangalore

    Sun, Nov 18 2018

    UP culture is slowly entering Kerala. The charm of Kerala has gone.

    DisAgree [2] Agree [9] Reply Report Abuse

  • Swamy, Mangalore

    Sun, Nov 18 2018

    All this illiterate kind of protest and violance by BJP can influence people living in Pakistan and Bangladesh etc but not educated country like India and certainly not state like Kerala. By this uncalled for deliberate attempt by BJP can only create animosity towards BJP and make them unpopular. Educated people of Kerala need educated solutions by educated people, not rowdy street people like BJP-RSS. Earlier they wanted equal rights hence they chose CPI. Now they want freedom and prosperity so they want congress. Communal, dictator and criminal BJP has no place in Kerala.

    DisAgree [2] Agree [12] Reply Report Abuse

  • Vincent Rodrigues, Katapadi/Bangalore

    Sun, Nov 18 2018

    Political parties infight make this country suited attack any time by our enemies.

    DisAgree [2] Agree [10] Reply Report Abuse

  • El En Tea, Mumbai

    Sun, Nov 18 2018

    The political party with association with communal organizations is cursed to the Nation playing dirty politics in the name of religion temple.

    DisAgree [3] Agree [7] Reply Report Abuse

  • Jossey Saldanha, Mumbai

    Sun, Nov 18 2018

    BJP, RSS and Right-wing outfits will make India a Bhikari Country ...

    DisAgree [4] Agree [18] Reply Report Abuse

  • Sahil, Mangaluru

    Sun, Nov 18 2018

    Protest will not gain anything lead to state revenue loss and normal people life miserable.

    DisAgree [3] Agree [13] Reply Report Abuse


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Title: BJP begins 'protest day', block roads against arrest of K Surendran



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