Divide Divine and Devotees

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Supreme Court of India will witness the creation of history on November 13 when it will hear batch of petitions challenging the verdict of a Constitution Bench delivered on September 28 junking the age old ban on the entry of women in the child bearing age into the Lord Ayyappa Temple at Sabarimala in Kerala’s Western Ghats. ( Ref )

A number of associations representing the devotees have filed review petitions challenging the verdict of the Constitution Bench. This has made the CPI-M led Travancore Devaswam Board (the department under the Kerala Government that administers the money-spinning Hindu shrines in the State) to hire the best legal brain in the country.

Aryma Sundaram, senior Supreme Court lawyer has been chartered by the CPI-M leadership, by falling down at the feet of the former. Aryama is one of the highest paid lawyers in the country whose services are usually sought by corporate giants to fight complicated legal entanglements.

The Travancore Devaswam Board approached Sundaram with the request to save them from the predicament of being a part to the Constitution Bench verdict. Once he accepted the brief, the TDB made a vault face and asked him to fight the petitions challenging the September 28 verdict. Aryama Sundaram has no other go than appearing for his client despite his reservation about the verdict.

But what makes this assignment sweeter for Aryama is not the millions of rupees which he would receive as his fees. There is more to it that meets the ordinary eyes. Aryama Sundaram is the son of Sundaram, the third son of late Sir C P Ramaswamy Aiyar, the former Diwan of the princely State of Travancore and the top-notch barrister of the country. That makes Aryama the youngest grandson of Sir CP.

Sir C P Ramaswamy Aiyar, the builder of the modern Travancore State, was a much maligned and insulted personality by the Communists and the Christians of the then Travancore State. It was his intervention which prevented the Travancore State from being completely proselytized by the evangelists and pastors during the1930s and 1940s. The Communists hated him virulently for his acumen in suppressing the riots of Punnapra-Valayalr regions of Kerala, which the former portray as a freedom struggle and the world’s biggest labour uprising. Later investigations have proved that the agitation was a ploy by the Communists to create anarchy in the State and put it in turmoil.

It is a sweet revenge for Aryama as the Communists who were spitting venom on his grandfather on fictitious charges has to seek the divine intervention of his grandson to save them from a major embarrassment.

But what is disturbing millions and millions of devotees of Lord Ayyappa spread all over India and other countries is the move by the CPI-M led Kerala Government to convert the holy shrine into a battlefield. Even as this report is being dispatched, hectic activities are going in AKG Centre, the CPI-M’s imposing party headquarters at Thiruvananthapuram (of course, constructed in land encroached from the Kerala University Office) to mobilise and deploy a new young force by name Pinarayi Sena (Force Pinarayi, to synch with US style) at Sabarimala. This 2500 men force is being deployed to oversee the smooth entry of the likes of Rehana Fatima, Sweety Mary and Bewitching Bindu whom Pinarayi Vijayan hopes to heli-drop atop Sabarimala.  ( Ref )

The Pinarayi Sena to be deployed at Sabarimala is in addition to the armed units of Kerala Police which would be seen in action at the sanctum of the temple. The fact that members of the Pinarayi sena are being mobilised from Kannur proves that they are from the “quotation gangs” sponsored and maintained by the CPI-M at various places in the district exclusively for assassinating any persons who do not follow the party diktat.

The opposition to the Supreme Court verdict allowing women of child bearing age in Sabarimala has reached a crescendo as the 41-day Mandala Pooja festival begins on November 17 (Malayalam month Vrischikam 1). The Thanthri (chief priest) and the main priest (mel santhi) had already expressed their displeasure over the move by the Kerala Government to interfere in the daily poojas of the temple. M Padmakumar, president, Travancore Devaswam Board and a staunch CPI-M member has been asked by chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan to keep off the temple precincts.  Though a CPI-M member, Padmakumar is a devotee of Lord Ayyappa and is respected by people cutting across political differences. This has upset Pinarayi Vijayan who deputed Sankaradas, a member of the Travancore Devasawm Board who is a hardcore Pinarayi Bhakt and a friend of Bishop Franco Mulackel to oversee the arrangements at Sabarimala.

Sankaradas is known for his highhandedness and it was at his instance the Thanthri and mel santhi were taken into custody by the police last week before the Chithira Aatta Festival which fell on November 6. The entire Kerala news channels barring the popular Janam TV were unanimous in their support for Pinarayi Vijayan’s efforts to make Sweety Mary and Rehana Fatima enter the sanctum.

Sreedharan Pillai, the BJP chief, exposed the hidden agenda of the CPI-M controlled media which is spreading all kinds of falsehoods and lies to discredit the Hindus in the State. While the resignation of CPI-M supporter Gowridasan Nair as editor of The Hindu in charges of #MeToo allegations did not find any mention in Kerala media, the channels were vying with one another in abusing and humiliating Hindu leaders who are agitating against the Supreme Court verdict.

Valsan Thillankeri, the RSS leader who is respected all over the State for his erudition and knowledge was described as a “goonda” by Lal, a news reader of People TV (a channel owned by the CPI-M). Mathrubhumi TV, shaken by the disclosure by Sreedharan Pillai about the CPI-M control of the media in Kerala, abused him using the choices of abuses. The channel authorities display the name of Sreedharan Pillai as Fraction Pillai because of their resentment against the latter for disclosing a hitherto closely guarded secret among the CPI-M leadership.

“The state of affairs in Kerala’s news channels is really sad and unfortunate. The kind of news aired by these channels is totally against the professional ethics and broadcasting code,” said K Kunhikrishnan, former additional director general of Doordarshan, the pioneer of Malayalam Television.

The CPI-M and the Congress are adamant that women of child bearing age should be allowed inside the temple to prevent the BJP from spreading its wings in Kerala. If the developments of the last few weeks are any indication, the possibility of the Hindutva party emerging as a major player in Kerala politics has brightened.

 

Author : Sushama Kumar