Kerala Devaswom Minister Kadakampally Surendran has hit out at Travancore Devaswom President Prayar Gopalakrishnan for rejecting Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s suggestions over facilities at the Sabarimala temple.
According to reports, Surendran said that the president had disrespected the CM by behaving rudely. The minister accused Gopalakrishnan of deliberately trying to garner media attention by doing so.
In a review meeting convened by the CM on Thursday to discuss various facilities at Sabarimala temple, Prayar Gopalakrishnan had refuted all the suggestions put forth by Pinarayi Vijayan.
Saying that his words indicated staunch communalism, Kadakampally Surendran said that the president should not intervene in the decision on lifting the ban on entry of women of menstruating age at the temple.
Pinarayi Vijayan had on Thursday said that VIP darshan at Sabarimala should be done away with and that Tirupati model should be implemented. Adding that women of all age groups must be allowed to enter the temple, the CM also said that the temple should be opened on all days. Prayar Gopalakrishnan had turned down all the suggestions, leading to a heated argument between the two.
Meanwhile, BJP state chief Kummanam Rajashekharan said that decisions on temple administrations must be left to the discretion of believers and the CPI(M) should stay away from it.
Reports say that he also questioned why CPI(M) was interfering in temple administration, while not taking the same stance on places of worships of other religions.
In an article published in CPI(M) mouthpiece “Deshabhimani” on Saturday, party state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan had reiterated the party's stance that ban on entry of women of menstruating age was anti-women.
“CPI (M) completely supports women’s entry. Sabarimala issue cannot be considered as mere tradition. Only those who bear the fascist ideologies consider it as a tradition. Feudals believed in male hypocrisy and female slavery. Such kind of people were behind prohibiting lower caste people from entering inside temples in the past when kings used to rule,” he wrote.