The humiliating defeat in the recent parliament elections has prompted the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) in Kerala to review its policy on the women's entry at Sabarimala temple. The party-led Left coalition had faced a major debacle in the elections by reducing itself to one in the 20 Lok Sabha seats in the state.
According to a report on Manoramaonline, the state government led by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has decided to drop its stern stand in implementing the Supreme Court order allowing women aged between 10 and 50 to enter the forest shrine. The decision was in the wake of the CPI(M)'s observation that it had lost even the traditional vote bank in the state.
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The Congress-led UDF, which had maintained that the prevailing customs in the shrine should be protected, won 19 seats limiting the ruling front to Alappuzha constituency and thwarting the Bharatiya Janata Party's hopes to open its account in the state. The BJP was at the forefront of the agitation against the government's decision to “hurriedly” implement the top court order.
On September 28, 2018, the apex court struck down a centuries-old custom that bars entry of menstruating women into the popular hill shrine in Pathanamthitta district, sparking off state-wide protests. The CPI(M) and the state government maintained that they were duty-bound to implement the order while hailing it as the one promoting gender equality.
In the wake of the poll fiasco, the government might not be as keen as it had been to implement the order. It would give protection to any woman who approaches the police seeking security for trekking the hill. However, in the event of a protest, they would be persuaded by the police to return, says Manoramaonline report.
A CPI(M) secretariat meet held recently to review the poll results had observed that both the Congress and the BJP had managed to misdirect a section of the Sabarimala devotees, causing a large number of women voters leaving the party. The party's stand was criticised in the review meetings of the coalition partners, too, including the CPI.
