Team News Riveting
Raipur, July 8
Of the seven women ministers who have been sworn-in Wednesday in the Union Cabinet, two have similarity in a different sense.
Meenakshi Lekhi and Shobha Karandlaje, both are now state ministers in the Narendra Modi government, have vehemently worked to uphold the sanctity and rich tradition of Lord Ayyappa. On 28 September 2018, the apex court had ended an age-old practice of keeping out women in their menstruating age from the temple. The order allowed women and girls of all age groups to visit the Holy Shrine.
While the decision upset millions of Ayyappa devotees, not many politicians openly came out to retain the rich tradition. Meenakshi Lekhi and Shobha were among a few who vehemently protested against the decision.
The two women MPs from BJP supported the ‘Save Sabarimala movement’. As part of the Save Sabarimala movement, the calls of Swamiye Sharnamayyappa, till then a call of faith and devotion, acquired shades of political dissent and became a battle cry against state machinery that wished to violate the sanctity of a temple that Hindus of Southern India held dear to their heart.
BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi launched a scathing attack on Kerala’s Left government and the activists who are pushing to normalise the entry of women at the Ayyappa temple in Sabarimala. She accused the Kerala government of intentionally provoking members of a particular community.
“This conversation and this narrative are coming from people who neither understand Hinduism nor do they know the practices of rituals…,” Lekhi had said in the Lok Sabha on Friday as part of a discussion on matters of urgent public interest.
Two days after two women entered the Sabarimala temple by cheating, Meenakshi and Shobha had registered their strong protest. “The women were taken to the temple ‘like transgenders’ at night, and if they had been devotee women, they should have come during the day,” she fumed and criticised Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan for converting the shrine into a clash zone.
Shobha Karandlaje, took to twitter to express her angst. “Who is responsible for the closing of Sabarimala temple today? Lakhs of devotees are waiting for Darshan. Who will arrange for their stay in Sabarimala till the temple is open? @cpimspeak govt and police are hand-in-glove with the urban naxals to defame Hindu traditions.”
Shobha is a committed Ayyappa devotee. Way back in 2011, she was Power Minister in Karnataka when she criticised the Kerala government for the lack of facilities at Sabarimala to cope with the situation arising out of the stampede that killed over a hundred devotees on Friday. “There seems to be no government in the state,” she fumed over lack of facilities in Sabarimala.
