Sabarimala: Travancore Devaswom Board Meeting With Stakeholders Yields No Results | 10 Points

Thiruvananthapuram: A massive standoff erupted between women groups, devotee bodies and Hindu outfits on Tuesday protesting the entry of women of all ages being allowed at the Sabarimala temple as tension mounts ahead of the hill shrine’s opening on Wednesday.

The protesters, who have been camping at the Nilakkal base camp enroute to the hill shrine, stopped women from proceeding further to Pamba, till where women were allowed to go even earlier. Meanwhile, a meeting called by the Travancore Devaswom Board with all the stakeholders of the Sabarimala temple is underway.

Here are the top developments:

* Travancore Devaswom Board that manages the hill shrine hinted that the temple body met with tantris (temple priests), Pandalam royals and devotee groups like the Ayyappa Seva Sangam, Ayyappa Seva Samajam, tantri mahamandalam and Yoga Kshema Sabah to take a collective decision on the row. The meeting, however, did not yield any results. “We told the Board that we want the earlier status quo to be maintained. That said, we are against violence of any sort. It's not the solution to anything. The talks failed. We believe in offering prayer to the Lord and now will intensify the same,” Sasikumar Varma, Pandalam royal family representative told News18.

The Board is expected to meet again on October 19th.

* Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said his government will not allow anyone to take law & order in their hands. "The government will ensure facilities to devotees to go to Sabarimala Temple and offer prayers. Government will not submit a review petition. We've said in court that we'll implement the order," he said.

* Earlier in the day, women devotees and journalists said they were being stopped at the base camp in Nilakkal from proceeding towards the Sabarimala shrine of Lord Ayyappa. The protesters stopped cars heading towards the traditional trekking routes that lead to Sabarimala temple to check if any women are headed towards the temple. Some women alleged they were dragged out of the vehicles and blocked from going further.

* According to reports, the temple board is likely to ask the Supreme Court to give it more time to implement its verdict allowing women to enter the hill shrine, citing poor infrastructure that has been further damaged by the recent floods in the state.

* Another review petition against the Sabarimala verdict has now been filed in the Supreme Court. The All-Kerala Brahmins Association, also known as Kerala Brahmana Sabha, has moved the SC seeking a review of the Sabarimala judgment while insisting that the restriction on entry of women in the age group of 10-50 years cannot be seen as gender discrimination issue. It has stated that the court has made an error while judging the issue from the lens of individual dignity without considering similar restrictions placed on men in many other temples in the country. The petition stresses that the majority judgment failed to appreciate the distinction between “pilgrims” and “devotees’ while also highlighting how different temples across India follow different practices such as different time of opening and closing, donation of hair etc, and cannot, therefore, be questioned.

* Over 30 protesting organisations have sent squads to the base camp from where the yatra to the shrine starts to hold demonstrations against the SC verdict.

* The Shiv Sena's Kerala unit has vowed to send a group of activists, who will commit suicide if women who are barred from entering the temple as per its customs attempt to enter the temple. The party will also deploy hundreds of its activists at Nilackkal and Pampa to block women from the menstruating age group.

* The state unit of the BJP, which has been leading protests against the implementation of the Supreme Court verdict, has also slammed the state government for refusing to file a review petition on the court's ruling. It had given the Devaswom board 24 hours to come up with a solution that is set to expire today. The party, which took out a massive rally against women's proposed entry to shrine on Monday, has alleged that the government is "conspiring" to destroy the hillock shrine.

* Progressive women's groups, meanwhile, have started coming in open to assert their right. While the women's rights protection committee will hold a convention at Ernakulam in the evening demanding implementation of the SC verdict, another progressive women's forum called 'Samam' has come forward to support the women who like to go to Sabarimala. It will be holding a meeting at state capital today to urge women to make use of the SC verdict.

* The Supreme Court had last month lifted the ban on women in the 10-50 age group from entering the temple, leading to widespread protests in Kerala. The protests have been building up to a crescendo.