BJP President Amit Shah and Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan exchanged heated words on the Sabarimala issue on Tuesday on their respective social media accounts.
At around 9.30 am on Tuesday, Amit Shah tweeted a strongly worded condemnation that the Kerala police was treating women and girls in an inhumane manner, forcing them to make the pilgrimage to Sabarimala without adequate toilets and other facilities. He also said that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan cannot get away with treating Ayyappa devotees like inmates of the Gulag, the notorious Soviet era labour camp system under Vladimir Lenin.
The way Pinarayi Vijayan’s govt is handling the sensitive issue of Sabarimala is disappointing. Kerala police is treating young girls, mothers and aged inhumanly, forcing them to take the arduous pilgrimage, without even basic facilities like food, water, shelter & clean toilets.
— Amit Shah (@AmitShah) November 20, 2018
If several reports of flushing resting places for devotees and them having to spend nights next to pig droppings & dustbin are true, then Pinarayi Vijayan must realize that he can’t treat Ayyappa devotees like inmates of Gulag. We won't let LDF crush people's faith with impunity.
— Amit Shah (@AmitShah) November 20, 2018
If Pinarayi Vijayan thinks he can rise against people’s movement to preserve Sabarimala by arresting K Surendran, our Thrissur District President and 6 others, then he is mistaken. We stand firmly with every Ayyappa devotee, who holds the Sabarimala tradition close to his heart.
— Amit Shah (@AmitShah) November 20, 2018
Amit Shah’s reference to policemen sleeping amongst pig droppings comes from an earlier tweet by BJP IT Cell head Amit Malaviya, who first made the allegation.
Pinarayi’s govt has unleashed unprecedented hardship on Lord Ayyappa’s devotees. No place to rest enroute, people have had to sleep next to pig droppings and dustbins, young children & aged suffer as taps run dry, no food, no toilets. Do Hindus have human rights? #SaveSabarimala
— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) November 18, 2018
Responding on Facebook at around 7 PM on Tuesday, Pinarayi Vijayan refuted Amit Shah’s tweets strongly, calling them unfounded and misleading. He said that the pilgrims there had expressed satisfaction at the arrangements provided there, and the arrangements only caused trouble to Sangh Parivar elements who were bent on causing trouble at Sabarimala with ulterior motives, and that Amit Shah must have gotten carried away with the campaign started by such elements. His post also said, “Mr Rajnath Singh, the union home minister has gone on record that the government do not have any option but to execute the order of the apex court. This itself is a reply to the allegation levelled by Amit Shah.”