Under fire from the BJP and other right-wing groups for its stance on allowing women into Sabarimala, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday said, “The government is with devotees and the government has made it clear beyond doubt.”
Urging the media to introspect over what message is being delivered with each story, Pinarayi said, "The responsibility of the media is not to solely present news as news but at the same time to think about what is the message being delivered along with each story. There were a few arrests in Sannidhanam yesterday (on Sunday). But what exactly happened there? Some RSS people camped there. Everyone must be knowing why they camped there. Sannidhanam can't be turned into a place of chaos. We won't be able to support that no?" Pinarayi said.
The Chief Minister was speaking at the state conference of Kerala Union of Working Journalists in Kozhikode.
He reiterated the government’s stand that it has no other option but to implement the Supreme Court verdict on the entry of women of all ages into Sabarimala. "The government is not with the people who are creating chaos. The propaganda is such that the government is against devotees, which is not true. The government has no other option to implement the Supreme Court verdict. The decision has to come from the court no? Since it is a country where law of the land exists the government has to go with the court verdict," he said.
Pinarayi also hit out at the Sangh Parivar, stating, " The agenda is to destroy Kerala from the current form. The government won't stand with that. As a people who are successors of reformation, we are not able to support that.”
Meanwhile CPI (M) State Secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan in a press conference said that the protest of the Sangh Parivar in Kerala is to create a riot in the state. "Their intention is to take over Sabarimala, and they are using women and children for this," he alleged.
He alleged that their tactics are to use children as a cover when the police is implementing law.