Kerala State Devaswom Minister, Kadakampally Surendran on Thursday alleged that the petition asking for women entry into Sabarimala was a conspiracy hatched by the BJP as one of the petitioners who filed a PIL in the Supreme Court in 2006 was a BJP member.
Advocate Prerna Kumari, was one among the five women petitioners, who filed a petition in the Supreme Court in 2006 demanding the entry of women into the Sabarimala temple.
Kadakampally Surendran also posted a couple of pictures of Prerna Kumari, where she can be seen holding a BJP flag as well as a picture of Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. He has included a screenshot of Prerna’s Twitter account, where her name is shown as “Chowkidar Prerna”. Chowkidar which translates to a watchman, was a term used by Narendra Modi to refer to himself as the “chowkidar” of the country.
Prerna’s Twitter handle bio states that she is the official spokesperson of the Purvanchal Morcha BJP and the Secretary of the BJP Legal Cell of the Supreme Court unit.
“When we had earlier stated that the petitioner had links with the BJP and RSS, the Kerala BJP leaders kept arguing that the petitioner has no relation with their party,” said Kadakampally Surendran.
Kadakampally, in his Facebook post also stated that Prerna’s husband, Sidharth Shambu, who is an active member of the BJP is also close to the party president, Amit Shah.
“When the RSS tried to create conflict in the state regarding the Sabarimala women’s entry, we kept saying that it was women from BJP who filed the petition in the Supreme Court demanding women’s entry,” said Kadakampally Surendran, who went on to add that this revelation is an answer to all those people who did not believe what they said.
Kadakampally Surendran went on to say that BJP leaders like Kummanam Rajasekharan and PS Sreedharan Pillai must show the decency to admit at least now that it was the BJP that filed the petition in the court. “They must also apologise to the public of Kerala for creating conflicts, right from the Sabarimala temple to the streets of the state,” added the Devaswom Minister.
However, according to a report by Bar and Bench in October 2018, which is, after the September 28 verdict of the Supreme Court allowing the entry of women of all ages into the Sabarimala temple, Prerna Kumari said that she had a change of mind after she filed the petition in 2006.
According to Bar and Bench, she is quoted to have said that, “When I filed petition in this matter, I was not fully aware of the facts of this case. Further, I am not from Kerala. Justice Indu Malhotra has also said that no petitioner is from Kerala and hence petitioners cannot give a real picture of the case.”
Prerna went on to say that after she filed the petition in the SC, she received a letter from a woman devotee who told her that there are many Lord Ayyappa temples in Kerala where women are allowed to enter and worship. “Importantly, she told that women in Kerala are themselves not interested in entering the temple so why was I taking the initiative for them?” said Prerna.
She goes on to add, “I might have unintentionally hurt the sentiments of the devotees there. I realised that I was wrong. I came to know about many facts at a later stage.”
On her Twitter account, Prerna Kumari said that the Left was targeting her as they were bereft of other issues.
they are frustrated..
— Chowkidar Prerna (@PrernakumariAdv) March 28, 2019
They are blank on the other issues like development, farmers problem etc..so targeting me.. I have already made myself clear through media and magazine that I am with the devotees..all political gimmicks