Ernakulam: The leaders of Sabarimala ‘Karma Samithi (action group)’, an umbrella outfit consisting of several pro-right groups championing the ban against menstruating women in Sabarimala hill shrine in Kerala, has said it will organise a mega “devotional” rally of two lakh people on Sunday.
The development follows the state’s ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist), CPM’s, show of strength on 1 January, purportedly against the ban, by creating a “Wall of Women” across Kerala which claims to have had participation of 50 lakh women.
Mata Amritanandamayi, a Kerala-based self-styled god woman who counts millions as followers across the world, will be the chief guest of the event, said the Samithi in a note to the press. Sri Sri Ravishankar of Art of Living Foundation, another one of the most famous spiritual organizations in the country, has also been invited, it added.
The Samithi has been organizing such rallies under the banner “Nama Japa Yatra’, the given name for organised protests of devotees and right wing outfits against the Supreme Court verdict which overturned the ban on women.
The Sunday’s rally in Kerala’s capital city, Thiruvananthapuram, will be attended by more than 200 leaders of religious and caste outfits, said K P Sasikala, a firebrand speaker and leader of pro-right Hindu Aikya Vedi (United Hindu Forum), who also heads the Samithi.
The event’s political overtones would be a headache for Kerala’s two major political coalitions, the CPM-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF). In effect, the event will be one of the biggest mobilisations in favour of the BJP in the recent past in Thiruvananthapuram, a Lok Sabha seat that traditionally swings between the UDF and the LDF. The seat is currently held by two-time parliamentarian and a key national leader of Congress, Shashi Tharoor.