Days ahead of Kerala polls, parties race to rake up Sabarimala, devotees wary

With less than a week left for the crucial assembly elections in Kerala, the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) is busy with a house-to-house contact programme throughout the state to inform believers of the “real situation in Sabarimala” even as people living around the revered shrine are disillusioned with the politics over the issue.

The contentious issue has returned to haunt the ruling party after its opponents invariably flaunted the temple card to woo believers. Having learnt a bitter lesson in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, in which it lost all but one of 20 Lok Sabha seats, the ruling party is worried --- unrest in Sabarimala was cited as the main reason for its defeat in the last general elections.

The hill temple and surrounding areas had witnessed unrest in 2018 after the state government tried to implement the Supreme Court verdict that removed restrictions on visits of child-bearing women saying it was against gender equality. The state had witnessed five shutdowns and two people died in the violence that rocked the state.

Chittar is a hilly village located in Pathanamthitta district; at least 22 km away from the Sabarimala temple base camp Pambha, where the unrest against the verdict first began in 2018. Locals say it was a spontaneous movement sans any political colour or flag and they agree even Communists participated in the voluntary movement.

Many political parties including the Congress and BJP initially welcomed the verdict. Then Congress president Rahul Gandhi and senior leaders of BJP including O Rajagopal termed the verdict “historic”.

But as the situation slowly changed after spontaneous protests broke out throughout the state, the political parties were forced to change their stand.

Kerala Congress leaders reportedly sent an SOS to the party high command that the BJP will hijack the whole issue and the party will turn defunct if it supported the verdict. “I can see enough validity in the argument that tradition needs to be protected,” Gandhi had later explained about change in his position on Sabarimala. “It was a swift political move that paid rich dividends to the Congress. Otherwise, the BJP would have hijacked the whole issue,” said political observer Sunnykutty Abraham.

Some devotees do agree it was good the temple issue hit national headlines but others criticise it saying it is being misused by political parties to expand their base.

P Abhilash, a tribal youth, had spent 53 days in jail after his arrest during a hymn-chanting session at Nilackkal, second base camp of the temple in 2018. Earlier a Communist sympathizer he’s now in the BJP. “Since I was not identified with any political party then nobody came to release me on bail. But I firmly stood for my faith,” he said.

Another BJP worker, Jayaprakash Chittar, who was into hardware trade for two decades, lost his business after 17 cases were foisted on him. “Though the court gave its verdict in 2018 it never asked the state government to implement it immediately with force. Communists are known atheists and we all felt the government tried to impose it in haste,” he said.

Another devotee K Aneesh said he spent six days in the deep forest surviving only on water to dodge the police. Last month, the government had withdrawn all cases, other than criminal ones, registered during the temple agitation. But many say they get regular summons from the court but they don’t regret their involvement and they say they did everything for their favourite deity and Lord Ayyappa will find a lasting solution to the issue.

“My uncle Chandran Unnithan (57) sacrificed his life for the movement three years ago when stones were pelted on him during a hymn-chanting session in Pandalam. We hope his sacrifice won’t be wasted,” said his niece P Mini. Unnithan died after an alleged group of CPI(M) workers pelted stones at a fasting venue in Pandalam in Pathanamthitta. He suffered serious head injuries and succumbed in a local hospital.

Devotees, however, remain wary of political parties. “During 2019 parliament election PM Modi said in Pathanamthitta that the Centre will intervene to protect the tradition of the temple. Two years passed since then. Apart from tall promises nothing happened on the ground,” said Venugopalan Nair, a regular at the temple for the last five decades.

He says political parties should not mix politics with belief. Sabarimala tops election manifestos of both the BJP and the Congress with the two rival national parties promising a special legislation to protect temple customs. Not to be left behind, the CPI (M) said it will implement the final verdict only after consulting all stakeholders.

As the issue continues to dominate the political sphere, the ruling CPI (M) is trying its best to dodge it by saying the plea was before the nine-member Constitution bench of the Supreme Court. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was red-faced on Tuesday when the media asked him about the temple issue. “Why are you frequently asking this? Like the opposition parties a section of the media also wants to fan it. Pilgrimage to the temple is going on peacefully for the last two years,” he said.

“The opposition is bankrupt. They are raking up the temple issue because they don’t have anything else to talk about. It is a ploy to turn believers against the government,” said party acting secretary A Vijyaraghavan adding the party will explain to the people about the current situation. Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala hit back saying that devotees were dealt with brutally at many places. “The CPI (M) wants to create an impression that nothing happened at the temple,” he said.

G Sukumaran Nair, general secretary of Nair Service Society, a powerful socio-cultural body fighting for temple customs for many years, said that all parties were playing double game over the issue. “We have immense faith in the judiciary and we feel our customs and traditions will be protected,” he said.

In the 2019 general election, the Congress Party’s Anto Antony had retained the Pathanamthitta seat defeating CPI (M) and BJP candidates. The CPI (M) represents Ranni assembly constituency where the temple is situated. In adjoining Konni seat, BJP state president K Surendran is contesting this time to cash in on devotees unrest. Surendran is the lone candidate in the state contesting on two seats-- Konni in Pathanamthitta and Mancheswaram in north Kerala.