- Sourav Bhattacharya & Kalpesh / 20.10.2018
All efforts by women to enter Sabarimala temple in Kerala today, once again turned into a fiasco as the devotees of Ayappa threatened to retaliate by force any attempt by women to enter Sabarimala temple.
Before this, skirmishes between the police and the devotees had taken place on Wednesday, when the doors of the temple were to open to the devotees for monthly offerings. The devotees had blocked all routes to the hill temple at the Nilackal and Pamba base camps, preventing the entry of young women to the temple. Police half-heartedly resorted to a baton charge.
Ayappa, the deity in whose name the temple was built, is known and worshipped as a celibate, who must keep away from unpious, menstruating women. Women, till their menopausal age of 55 are thus not permitted to enter the temple.
Travancore Devaswom Board, that governs the Temple, is headed by the appointees and leaders of the ruling CPM who took no real steps ever to put the discriminatory rules and custom to an end.
Recently, Supreme Court of India in its verdict of September 28, has declared in favour of the right of women to enter Sabarimala Temple after the women have petitioned it against the ban. The judgement has come on the heels of another judgement that declared the customary Triple Talaq under Muslim law, invalid.
Before this, skirmishes between the police and the devotees had taken place on Wednesday, when the doors of the temple were to open to the devotees for monthly offerings. The devotees had blocked all routes to the hill temple at the Nilackal and Pamba base camps, preventing the entry of young women to the temple. Police half-heartedly resorted to a baton charge.
Ayappa, the deity in whose name the temple was built, is known and worshipped as a celibate, who must keep away from unpious, menstruating women. Women, till their menopausal age of 55 are thus not permitted to enter the temple.
Travancore Devaswom Board, that governs the Temple, is headed by the appointees and leaders of the ruling CPM who took no real steps ever to put the discriminatory rules and custom to an end.
Recently, Supreme Court of India in its verdict of September 28, has declared in favour of the right of women to enter Sabarimala Temple after the women have petitioned it against the ban. The judgement has come on the heels of another judgement that declared the customary Triple Talaq under Muslim law, invalid.
Rightwing hindu supremacist Modi Government was keen and instrumental in passing of the judgement on Triple Talaq, which it posed to its followers as tacit intrusion against Muslim males. Alongside, it also ventured to rally support among the estranged muslim women for ruling BJP.
The judgement in Sabarimala case, is more a balancing act by the Supreme Court, between the Hindu-Muslim communities, in the immediate aftermath of the decision by it on Triple Talaq, making perceptibly a progressive posture in favour of women.
Despite the Judgement of the Supreme Court and directions to the police to ensure unrestricted entry of women to the temple, the resistance by the devotees, that includes women too, has made any visit by the women to the temple, impossible.
After 70 years of the Indian bourgeoisie riding to power in collaboration with British Colonialists, on the suppression of the wave of revolution, condition of women remains, pitiable. Though the entry to Sabarimala Temple, promises nothing to women except binding them behind the very same orthodoxy that puts them under the yoke of oppression, yet the ban upon their entry into the temple is living proof of the failure of the bourgeois democracy in the country.
Derisory rights, declared by law in favour of women and other oppressed communities, remain illusive amidst the social milieu that is vastly dominated by the outdated prejudices that ensure domination of patriarchy in the society.
Ruling BJP and the rightwing organizations of Sangh Parivar, associated with it, were most fervent supporters of the resistance against the entry of women to Sabarimala. Organised under the banner of the newly formed 'Aachaar Samrakshan Samiti' the saffron organisations had laid seize to the Temple.
Despite the Judgement of the Supreme Court and directions to the police to ensure unrestricted entry of women to the temple, the resistance by the devotees, that includes women too, has made any visit by the women to the temple, impossible.
After 70 years of the Indian bourgeoisie riding to power in collaboration with British Colonialists, on the suppression of the wave of revolution, condition of women remains, pitiable. Though the entry to Sabarimala Temple, promises nothing to women except binding them behind the very same orthodoxy that puts them under the yoke of oppression, yet the ban upon their entry into the temple is living proof of the failure of the bourgeois democracy in the country.
Derisory rights, declared by law in favour of women and other oppressed communities, remain illusive amidst the social milieu that is vastly dominated by the outdated prejudices that ensure domination of patriarchy in the society.
Ruling BJP and the rightwing organizations of Sangh Parivar, associated with it, were most fervent supporters of the resistance against the entry of women to Sabarimala. Organised under the banner of the newly formed 'Aachaar Samrakshan Samiti' the saffron organisations had laid seize to the Temple.
While many other bourgeois rightwing parties kept silent on the Sabarimala issue giving their implied support to the cynical stance of devotees, Congress vocally sided with them.
The parties associated with the Stalinist Left front took a highly hypocritic stance on the issue. While under pressure of its rank and file cadres and supporters, the ruling Left Front Government kept vacillating from the beginning. Instead of declaring itself against the stance of devotees. It in fact continued to take zig-zags.
The Stalinist Government neither itself issued a notification to open the gates of the temple for women nor implemented the directions of the Supreme Court. Despite being armed with a Judgement and an order from the Supreme Court, the Left Front Government under Pinnarayi Vijayan kept wavering. It instead indulged in shrewd maneuver to avoid any confrontation and somehow pass the time till 22nd October, when the gates of Sabarimala Temple would be closed for the devotees.
None of the parties or organizations of the Stalinist left, including their women organisations, took to the challenge, despite the fact that the government and police in Kerala was in their hands. The policy of the Stalinist left was to avoid any and all confrontation at any cost.
While denying that the Board would file a Petition in Supreme Court for Review of the Judgement, the President of the Shrine Board, A. Padmakumar, a leader of CPM said that they don’t plan to file a Review as the Board is already Party to a dozen of Review Petitions. This implies that the stance of the Shrine Board under the CPM would be in favour of the Review Petitioners, though palpably it refrained from seeking a review itself because of the understandable political compulsions.
Stalinist Left Front Government under Pinnarayi, instead of implementing the unambiguous directions of the Supreme Court, is instead preparing a report to be presented to the Supreme Court, allegedly to ‘apprise the Court of grim situation’. The report that it does not want to disclose about, is obviously a report of failure, and apology for its inability to ensure the implementation of directions.
Far from being inspired or aroused by any radical orientation, the Stalinist left Government of Kerala, is absorbed into the mesh of sole and pragmatic considerations of running its government peacefully. Betraying all of its own proclamations in favour of gender equality, it has succumbed to the rightwing resistance in Sabarimala.
As the question of slightest of the rights of women or other oppressed sections of the society surfaces, all reaction conjures up to resistance and violence.
Bourgeois Democracy in India, rests upon the most backward and diehard social sentiments that are rooted in its distant medieval past. The contradictory nature of this regime, ultimately manifests itself on the one hand in loud proclamations of the rights alongside a complete denial of the same on the other.
Ruling bourgeoisie has failed to deliver any and all of its promises. It’s failed state and the constitutional regime that ensued from it’s reactionary political victory in 1947, has finally turned into a detention camp for all oppressed sections of the society, above all for women. If anything it could achieve, it is the bolstering of most regressive and intransigent elements of the society. It has zealously preserved everything that was rotting and decaying in the past, while adding to it, its own rot.
No social struggle against this rot can be successful till it is shielded by the sword of the regime that remains in the hands of ruling bourgeois.
Nothing less than a socialist victory of the proletariat, can alter these social conditions that are baggage of the past upon equally putrid present.
The parties associated with the Stalinist Left front took a highly hypocritic stance on the issue. While under pressure of its rank and file cadres and supporters, the ruling Left Front Government kept vacillating from the beginning. Instead of declaring itself against the stance of devotees. It in fact continued to take zig-zags.
The Stalinist Government neither itself issued a notification to open the gates of the temple for women nor implemented the directions of the Supreme Court. Despite being armed with a Judgement and an order from the Supreme Court, the Left Front Government under Pinnarayi Vijayan kept wavering. It instead indulged in shrewd maneuver to avoid any confrontation and somehow pass the time till 22nd October, when the gates of Sabarimala Temple would be closed for the devotees.
None of the parties or organizations of the Stalinist left, including their women organisations, took to the challenge, despite the fact that the government and police in Kerala was in their hands. The policy of the Stalinist left was to avoid any and all confrontation at any cost.
While denying that the Board would file a Petition in Supreme Court for Review of the Judgement, the President of the Shrine Board, A. Padmakumar, a leader of CPM said that they don’t plan to file a Review as the Board is already Party to a dozen of Review Petitions. This implies that the stance of the Shrine Board under the CPM would be in favour of the Review Petitioners, though palpably it refrained from seeking a review itself because of the understandable political compulsions.
Stalinist Left Front Government under Pinnarayi, instead of implementing the unambiguous directions of the Supreme Court, is instead preparing a report to be presented to the Supreme Court, allegedly to ‘apprise the Court of grim situation’. The report that it does not want to disclose about, is obviously a report of failure, and apology for its inability to ensure the implementation of directions.
Far from being inspired or aroused by any radical orientation, the Stalinist left Government of Kerala, is absorbed into the mesh of sole and pragmatic considerations of running its government peacefully. Betraying all of its own proclamations in favour of gender equality, it has succumbed to the rightwing resistance in Sabarimala.
As the question of slightest of the rights of women or other oppressed sections of the society surfaces, all reaction conjures up to resistance and violence.
Bourgeois Democracy in India, rests upon the most backward and diehard social sentiments that are rooted in its distant medieval past. The contradictory nature of this regime, ultimately manifests itself on the one hand in loud proclamations of the rights alongside a complete denial of the same on the other.
Ruling bourgeoisie has failed to deliver any and all of its promises. It’s failed state and the constitutional regime that ensued from it’s reactionary political victory in 1947, has finally turned into a detention camp for all oppressed sections of the society, above all for women. If anything it could achieve, it is the bolstering of most regressive and intransigent elements of the society. It has zealously preserved everything that was rotting and decaying in the past, while adding to it, its own rot.
No social struggle against this rot can be successful till it is shielded by the sword of the regime that remains in the hands of ruling bourgeois.
Nothing less than a socialist victory of the proletariat, can alter these social conditions that are baggage of the past upon equally putrid present.
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