Bhumata Brigade leader Trupti Desai's plan to lead a march to the Sabarimala temple suffered a major setback with the Kerala government deciding not to allow any woman inside the shrine till the Supreme Court delivers its verdict.
Desai had on Saturday said that she would lead 100 women activists to the famous forest temple in mid-January to protest against the centuries-old tradition which bars women aged between 10 and 50 from entering the shrine. “The Constitution guarentees equal right to men and women and my fight is for those rights,” Desai had said.
However, the state government on Sunday made it clear that the existing tradition and rules in the temple could not be altered unless through a court ruling. A case regarding this is pending in the Supreme Court. Until the court delivered its verdict, everybody was bound to obey the tradition, said Devaswom Minister Kadakampalli Surendran.
The CPI(M)-led government had earlier filed an affidavit in the top court saying it was not against allowing women to enter the temple. This was a clear shift from the stand taken by the previous UDF government which had opposed the women's entry saying temple board was the final authority to modify traditions.
The Lord Ayyappa temple in the Pathanamthitta district has been in the limelight ever since Desai and a group of activists successfully led a campaign for women's right to enter the Shani Shignapur temple and Haji Ali Dargah in Maharashtra.