“The Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) is duty-bound to exercise its obligations and responsibilities as a Constitutional institution as well as a temple administrative body and hence it cannot sideline the Supreme Court order permitting women of all age groups to offer worship at Sabarimala,” said TDB president A. Padmakumar.
Talking to The Hindu, Mr. Padmakumar said the board would not dilute any custom and practices at Sabarimala. At the same time, it has to comply with the order of the apex court.
He said the TDB had tried its level best to convince the Supreme Court about the custom of disallowing menstruating women, in the age group of 10 to 50 years, to undertake the Sabarimala pilgrimage. The board had also consulted eminent lawyers at the Supreme Court and all of them were of the opinion that there was no point in moving a review petition against the verdict of the Constitution Bench of the apex court, he said.
“I am an Ayyappa devotee to the core and both the board members, K.P. Sankaradas and K. Raghavan, too are staunch devotees. We stand for protecting the interests of the Ayyappa devotees,” he said.
He said the ongoing agitations were politically motivated and it would only have a negative impact on the popularity of Sabarimala. He accused the BJP and the Congress of politicising the Sabarimala issue and the recent Supreme Court order with a dubious design to gain political mileage. Sooner or later, both the parties would realise it as a big folly, he said.
“The TDB is facing testing times after the devastating deluge that had wreaked havoc at Pampa in the foothills of Sabarimala. The board has taken elaborate measures to ensure every possible pilgrim amenity at Pampa and Nilackal during the monthly puja period and the annual pilgrim season that begins in mid-November. Instead of taking devotees to the streets in the name of the Supreme Court verdict, the BJP and the Congress should have extended their support to the TDB and the government to ensure smooth conduct of the ensuing annual pilgrim season at Sabarimala,” said Mr. Padmakumar.
Those who allege violation of custom and practices at Sabarimala themselves were trying to use Sabarimala and Ayyappa to meet their political ends. All parties and stakeholders concerned should maintain some sort of restraint and responsibility in dealing matters concerning Sabarimala, he said.
Propaganda ‘baseless’
Mr. Padmakumar said the propaganda that the government was taking the temple revenue to the State coffers was absolutely baseless. In fact, the government has been sanctioning funds for Sabarimala development on an yearly basis.
Besides the annual grant, the State government has sanctioned ₹150 crore from the KIIFB for temple infrastructure development. The State had sanctioned ₹203 crore for Sabarimala development in the previous fiscal. The Centre too sanctioned ₹98 crore for developing temple infrastructure.
He said there was a conscious attempt to financially destroy the temples in the State and the ongoing clamour from certain quarters to fill the devaswom bhandarom (hundi) with pleas to protect custom and practices at Sabarimala was part of this dubious political design.
Mr. Padmakumar said he was ready to discuss various issues arising out of the Supreme Court verdict with the Pandalam Palace authorities and the Sabarimala Tantris (high priests).