Source – deccanchronicle.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kochi\/Thiruvananthapuram: <\/strong>The Sabarimala temple opened with high religious fervour on Saturday though politicos tried to score points and three women made an unsuccessful bid to worship at the shrine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The police sent back three women devotees from Andhra Pradesh below the age of 50 after checking their identity cards on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The women had come with a 15-member group from Vijayawada and they told the police that they were unaware of the restrictions. While Melshanti Vasudevan Namboothiri opened the sanctum sanctorum at 5 pm in the presence of tantri Mahesh Mohanaru, a leader of the renaissance movement lashed out at Devaswom Minister Kadakampally Surendran for being \u201cmore loyal than the king\u201d in keeping out young women from the Lord Ayyappa temple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The regular pujas signalling the start of the pilgrimage season will be performed from early Sunday, the first day of the Malayalam month of Vrischikam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A.K. Sudhir Namboothiri was installed as the new \u2018Melshanti\u2019 by performing \u2018Kalasabishekam\u2019 before the \u2018moolamantram\u2019 of Lord Ayyappa was passed on to to him. He will perform regular pujas from 4 am on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first leg of the pilgrimage, the 41-day \u2018Mandala\u2019 phase, will culminate with the \u2018Mandala\u2019 puja on December 27. It will be followed by \u2018Makaravilakku\u2019 with the \u2018jyothi darshan\u2019 as its highpoint on January 15.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, Punnala Sreekumar, general secretary of the \u2018Renaissance Values Protection Committee,\u2019 criticised the devaswom minister\u2019s stand and said his statement that women who intend to visit Sabarimala should obtain a special order from the Supreme Court was \u2018anti\u2019-constitutional.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The court has not granted a stay on the verdict allowing the entry of young women at the temple. Therefore, for a person holding a constitutional post, making such remarks is a clear violation of Constitution and law, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHe appears to be more loyal than the king,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The V.S. Achuthanandan government in 2007 and the present Pinarayi Vijayan government had given an affidavit in the Supreme Court in favour of the entry of young women. \u201cBy deviating from the stand now, the political leadership is justifying the allegations of UDF,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When the committee was promoting renaissance values, such deviations by the government would weaken their campaign, he said and sought more clarity from the government and political leadership on the matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has been guarded in his reaction to the Supreme Court verdict and the entry of young women, Kadakampally and law minister A.K. Balan have been more vociferous. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The latter had termed the verdict \u201chighly complicated\u201d which posed more problems to the government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere is no question of taking women between the ages of 10 and 50 to Sabarimala under government\u2019s protection and security,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, the CPM state secretariat on Saturday said that the reports claiming that the party has taken a stand on Sabarimala issue against the backdrop of Supreme Court verdict were only part of the imagination of a section of the media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a statement, the secretariat said the CPM\u2019s well stated position is that man-woman equality should be ensured in all spheres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, the government has to function on the basis of rules, laws and court verdicts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It said the Chief Minister had already pointed out that clarity would be sought on SC verdict from legal experts and the government will take a stand accordingly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The secretariat said the LDF governments had acted on the Sabarimala young women entry issue as per the High Court verdict of 1991 and till September 28, 2018 the same stand was applicable. After getting clarity on the recent verdict of the Supreme Court constitution bench, the government will discharge its constitutional responsibility of implementing the judgment.<\/p>\n