A Sabarimala Karma Samithi activist, who sustained grievous injuries in a stone pelting incident in Central Kerala, died on Thursday, as widespread violence was reported during the hartal on Friday.
The Samithi and the Antharashtriya Hindu Parishad had separate called for for the day-long hartal over the entry of two young women into the Sabarimala temple, in the wee hours of Thursday.
Two suspects held
The police has taken two suspected CPI(M) activists into custody, in connection with the death of the Samiti activist due to stone pelting at Pandalam on Wednesday evening.
At least 31 police officers were injured in skirmishes with BJP workers in Thiruvananthapuram, Kannur, Pandalam, Kozhikode and Palakkad on Thursday.
Activists took to the streets and torched each other’s offices at a number of places across the State, and blocked traffic as well.
At least 79 buses of the State Road Transport Corporations were damaged.
The State capital remained on tenterhooks as the hartal progressed, and tension prevailed for most part of the day around the Secretariat.
Five suspected Samiti workers were arrested for forcibly closing shops in Kozhikode.
Police fired tear gas shells to disperse activists who locked horns with traders and tried to vandalise shops.
Defences put up by traders to resist the hartal call and open their shops crumbled in the face of the onslaught by the marauding crowds.
Despite assurances made by the police, security arrangements proved inadequate for commercial establishments at Chalai bazaar in Thiruvananthapuram.
‘Priest should resign’
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that the Tantri (high priest) at Sabarimala should relinquish charge if he is not in a position to abide by the Supreme Court order. Vijayan told newspersons this here in the context of the Tantri closing down the temple and conducting ‘purification rituals’ on Thursday.
“This clearly amounts to violation of the court order. After all, the Tantri and the Devaswom Board (temple administration) were parties to the case, and were heard as well,” he said.
"I'm not contesting his right to disagree with the order. He should state as much in public, and relinquish charge. The Devaswom Board alone can take a decision on closing down the temple.”
He denied allegations that the government was 'hell-bent' on facilitating the trek uphill by young women or was being disrespectful to faith.
Constitutional obligation
The Supreme Court had on September 28 thrown open the temple for women, invalidating extant restrictions placed on the child-bearing age-group.
The ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) was duty-bound to implement the order, the Chief Minister reiterated, even as protests during a state-wide hartal peaked.
The BJP-RSS-NDA allaince and the Sangh Parivar staged protests across the State from September, demanding that traditions and rituals at Sabarimala be maintained at all costs.
The protests soon started acquiring political colours, as the election year 2019 loomed, and the LDF, the BJP, and the main Opposition Congress launched separate campaigns based on Sabarimala.
Later in December, protests near the temple and neighbourhood was withdrawn and the BJP opened a new campaign front with relay indefinite fast in front of the Secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram.
This was followed by the ‘Ayyappa Jyothi’ vigil by women devotees from the North to the South regions of the State, while the LDF responded by erecting a government-sponsored ‘Women's Wall’ on New year Day.
Entry of the two young women into the temple premises the very next day has triggered allegations that it was engineered by the LDF, even as lakhs of its women volunteers were heading home.