The Supreme Court order for round-the-clock police protection to the two Malayali women who worshipped at Sabarimala has given the women themselves and their well-wishers reason to cheer.
But the day also witnessed a fresh controversy over a list of 51 women aged between 10 and 50 years who, according to the police, had offered darshan at the temple in the pilgrim season that is set to draw to a close.
“I have not been able to go home or meet my teenage daughter ever since I went to Sabarimala. Never thought it would be this bad,” said Bindu Ammini, a university teacher who is forced to restrict her public movements to the trips between her college and place of stay closeby.
“My husband drops by once in a while, but my life is far from normal since January 2 [the day she offered prayers at the temple along with Kanakadurga, whom she met on Facebook],” she says, talking about the Supreme Court’s grant of round-the-clock police cover to the duo.
Bindu knew even before undertaking the trek that there would be resistance and that they would be waylaid by custom-guarding protesters. “But I never thought they would mobilise miscreants from outside the State to hound us. That’s why we sought the court’s urgent intervention and it’s a positive outcome,” she says.
While the court refused to heed some of their other pleas, including a direction against purification rituals following entry of women to the temple, Bindu is confident that such issues will come up for elaborate discussion when the court considers review petitions on the issue later in the month.
K. Ajitha of the women’s collective Anweshi, is happy about Friday’s order. “It’s positive and should be applicable to all the 51 women who worshipped at the temple. But there’s no doubt that the purification rituals conducted at the temple after these women entered there was an insult and a clear case of contempt of court.” she said.
As heated discussions erupted over the list of 51 young women, the VHP alleged in a statement here that the report submitted to the court was fabricated. “It was to cover up the failure of the State government, the police, the Devaswom Board, and the CPI(M) in bringing young women to Sabarimala. Another aim was to mislead the court and change the course of the cases related to this,” VHP state prachar pramukh N.R. Sudhakaran said.