A 46-year old woman from Sri Lanka, Sasikala, entered Kerala’s Sabarimala temple on Thursday night. She is the third woman after Bindu and Kanakadurga to enter the shrine amidst stiff opposition from protesters.
The Supreme Court in September had ordered the end of a ban on women of menstrual age – 10 to 50 years – from entering the shrine.
On Wednesday Bindu and Kanakadurga had created history by entering the temple, and it was soon followed by protests all over Kerala that has been marked by violence and arson all through Wednesday and Thursday.
Reports of the third visit was being speculated for a while. Sasikala had earlier said that she did not get a ‘darshan’ and that she was not allowed to go though she had a medical certificate that said her uterus had been removed. But the police later confirmed that she did manage to get a ‘darshan’ at the temple.
The visits of the two women earlier, and now another visit by a woman, have paralysed Kerala for two consecutive days, as Hindu groups shut businesses and disrupted transport with a protest strike against the state government, which has supported the rights of women to enter the temple and is carrying out the Supreme Court order.
The main strike was called by the Sabarimala Karma Samithi and the Antarrashtriya Hindu Parishad.
The protests against the Kerala government have been backed by both the main national parties Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress, that called it a “Black Day”. Activists of the BJP have been clashing with supporters of the ruling Left on the issue.
The Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan however, has been firm on the issue and said that the women keen on entering Sabarimala were being given protection as the government was following the Supreme Court’s order.
