The Pinarayi Vijayan lead Left Democratic Front (LDF) which is on a campaign to explain their stand on the Sabarimala issue by organising various public meetings in the different districts of the state, is facing severe criticism from various corners. In a statement released by the Nair Service Society (NSS) on Friday, its General Secretary, G Sukumaran Nair has lashed out at the state government, calling its decision to implement the Supreme Court verdict allowing women of all ages to enter the Sabarimala Temple, equivalent to an emergency like situation.
“The state government’s stand, which goes against the beliefs of the devotees, is both immoral as well as anti democratic,” read the statement. The statement by Sukumaran Nair said that when the Constitution guarantees the rights to safeguard one’s religious beliefs and rituals, the state government did not make any attempts to file a review petition nor did it make any attempt to explain the situation to the Supreme Court.
“The state government’s way of using the police to take action against the devotees is turning the whole situation into an emergency like situation,” read the statement.
“By making statements demeaning the members of the Pandalam royal family and members of the thantri family, the Chief Minister and the other ministers have created a wound in the minds of the believers,” the statement added.
The statement also says that the NSS will always take a stand in favour of devotees, and that NSS will resort to legal and peaceful ways to protest against the verdict.
On Wednesday, the Pandalam royal family hit out at CM Pinarayi Vijayan following his statement in a press conference that the Sabarimala temple is the property of the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) and that no one else has rights over it.
But the spokesperson of the Royal family, Sreekumar Varma, told the media that the TDB has only administrative control over the temple.
"The real owners of the temple are the devotees and the TDB has only administrative control. The relation that the family has with the Sabarimala temple does not change every five years," said Varma, obliquely criticising Vijayan's remarks.
Varma's statement was meant to emphasise that whenever the LDF government comes to power, it takes a position contrary to the Congress-led UDF's, which has maintained that it's the thantri and the Pandalam royal family whose views matter about Sabarimala.