October 28, 2018
Two days after a case was registered against him, activist Rahul Easwar was arrested on Sunday for allegedly making a provocative statement on the Sabarimala row, news agency ANI reported. Easwar was taken into custody under Section 153 (Wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
On Friday, the activist, who belongs to the Thazhamon family of Sabarimala tantris (priests) and was among those who spearheaded the protests in Sabarimala, was booked following a complaint filed by a Thiruvananthapuram resident, police said. During the protests, president of the ‘Ayyappa Dharma Sena’ had said that they had a contingency plan to force the closure of the temple by spilling blood on its premises by some devotees in case any woman in the ‘barred’ age group managed to reach it.
Rahul had also claimed that 20 Lord Ayyappa devotees, who were opposing the entry of women in the age group of 10 and 50, were ready to inflict knife injuries on themselves on the temple premises in order to force the priests to close the gates on account of impurity. “Had their blood fallen on the floor of the temple, that would have forced the priests to shut the shrine for three days for purification rituals,” he had said.
Easwar’s remarks came a day after Kerala Devaswom Minister Kadakkampally Surendran had claimed that effective police intervention had foiled the protesters’ bid to “desecrate” the Ayyappa Temple by spilling blood in the premises if women devotees in the 10-50 age group offered prayers. He had said the “conspiracy” of the devotees was made clear by the statement of the Ayyappa Dharma Sena president.
“This was a planned attempt to desecrate the holy temple, but effective police intervention defeated their efforts,” Surendran had said. The Minister had said the disclosure showed that there was a well-conceived plan, similar to that followed by nations to attack their enemies and added that this attempt was not only ‘seditious,’ but also against the interest of devotees.
Last week, the Sabarimala temple had witnessed high drama with around a dozen women in 10-50 age group being prevented from entering the temple by protesting devotees after the doors were opened for all women following the Supreme Court verdict. On September 28, a five-judge Constitution bench of the apex court, headed by the then Chief Justice Dipak Misra, had lifted the centuries-old ban on the entry of women of menstrual age into the shrine.
“Who is responsible for this arrogant behaviour of the calm and discipled devotee of lord Ayyappa ? Are the governments for people to serve them or people are slave for the government ?”- Editor, Vedic Upasana Peeth
Source : The Indian Express
Leave a Reply