Pinarayi Vijayan said the RSS is using Sabarimala protests as a political tool
The ruling BJP's ideological mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is vitiating the atmosphere at Sabarimala temple and sponsoring protests against the entry of women, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said today.
Reading out names of those he described as "Sangh Parivar activists" arrested in connection with the protests, the Chief Minister said the agitation had "very little to do with faith."
Pinarayi Vijayan's rejoinder followed BJP president Amit Shah's sharp criticism that Kerala government was treating Sabarimala pilgrims as "Gulag inmates" and making them spend nights next to "pig droppings."
Gulag was a system of forced labour camps established during Joseph Stalin's rule in the erstwhile Soviet Union.
Reiterating his party's support to Ayyappa devotees, the BJP president in a series of tweets said his party will not let the LDF "crush people's faith with impunity."
"Even when the temple was shut, there were attempts to create a law and order problem. With one aim-- that Sabarimala should be a tool in the hands of the Sangh Parivar," Mr Vijayan alleged, referring to the name that describes the RSS and its Hindu hardline affiliates.
The Chief Minister also accused the Congress of joining in what he called an RSS ploy to make Sabarimala a political issue. He asserted that his government had "no option but to implement" the order of the Supreme Court on September 28, ending the decades-old ban on women or menstrual age, or between 10 and 50 years, entering Sabarimala.
Because of protests and clashes, no woman under age 50 has been allowed to offer prayers at the temple since the Supreme Court ruling, with protesters fighting street battles with the police.
The protesters say the Supreme Court cannot give orders on matters of religion, and insist that Sabarimala's restrictions need to stay as women of menstruating age cannot be in the presence of the celibate deity Lord Ayyappa.
Mr Vijayan said the state government did everything possible for the pilgrims after the area was devastated by an unprecedented flood.