The Kerala BJP’s bid to take on the ruling CPI(M)-led LDF government over its move to hold a global summit of devotees of Lord Ayyappa, the presiding deity of the Sabarimala temple, has suffered a setback after two leading Hindu organisations threw their weight behind the Pinarayi Vijayan government’s initiative.
The conclave, called “Global Ayyappa Sangamam”, will be held at Pamba, the base station of the Sabarimala temple, on September 20. Chief Minister Vijayan is set to inaugurate the summit, which will be attended by his ministers, spiritual leaders and representatives of Ayyappa devotees from across the world.
A first of its kind event, the summit will mark the 75th anniversary of Travancore Devaswom Board, a state government body, which manages the Sabarimala shrine.
With Kerala slated for the local body elections followed by the Assembly polls in the coming months, the Global Ayyappa Sangamam is being seen in state political circles as a CPI(M)’s bid to woo Hindu voters in the state. The LDF had faced a blowback from the majority community for backing the landmark September 2018 Supreme Court judgment that declared as unconstitutional the practice of barring women of menstrual age entry to the Sabarimala temple.
Highlighting the CPI(M)’s Hindu outreach, party state secretary M V Govindan told media that the summit is for the development of Sabarimala. “Devotees have to play a major role in the fight against communalism. Party is always with the devotees and will go ahead considering their sentiments also,” he said.
With the Vijayan government now keen to put the 2018 episode behind, the BJP has been quick to question its “political intention’’ behind organising the event, urging the Hindu outfits to be cautious about the LDF’s “motives”. The BJP has also raked up the Vijayan dispensation’s crackdown on protests, marked by violence and the arrest of hundreds of devotees, in 2018 when the government sought to implement the apex court’s verdict allowing entry for women of all ages to the hill shrine.
However, the Nair Service Society (NSS), an influential body of upper caste Hindu Nairs, and SNDP Yogam, a prominent outfit of the backward Ezhava group, have extended its support to the sangamam.
Significantly, the NSS was at the forefront of agitations in 2018 against the LDF government’s alleged bid to “violate traditions” at the Sabarimala temple. Its members had hit the streets with “namajapa yatra” (prayer demonstrations), which intensified the stir against women’s entry to the shrine. The BJP had also joined the protests in a bid to mobilise the devotees and the Hindu community against the LDF regime.
The NSS’s rancour against the LDF government was evident even on the day of the Assembly elections in April 2021, when its general secretary G Sukumaran Nair called for “electing a government that protects faith”. However, bucking the trend, the Vijayan-led LDF returned to power in the state for second consecutive term by winning the 2021 polls, even though it faced a debacle in the 2019 and 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Now, the NSS has chosen to rally round the Vijayan government’s summit initiative. Sukumaran Nair said the leadership of the event should comprise devotees and be free from politics. “Then only the event will serve its purpose. The sangamam is welcome if it does not affect the purity of the temple and its traditions,’’ he stated.
After the government accepted its demand that politicians will be kept out of the summit’s organising committee, the NSS also decided Monday to depute its representative for the event.
Backing the Vijayan government’s move to hold the sangamam, SNDP Yogam general secretary Vellappally Natesan also said that “Past (the row over entry of young women to the Sabarimala temple) is a closed chapter. Since the government has stated that there would not be any deviation from the traditions and rituals at the temple, there is no ground for any anxiety. There is no reason to keep away from the event. The past is not relevant and what is significant is the present.”
Natesan’s son Thushar Vellappally is the president of Bharath Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS), an ally of the BJP-led NDA in Kerala. While Natesan has been aligned with the CPI(M), the BDJS had earlier backed the BJP on the Sabarimala issue. When contacted, Thushar said his party has yet to decide on its stand over the Ayyappa convention.
BJP national executive committee member P K Krishnadas asked the government to first withdraw the police cases registered against the devotees over the 2018 protests before holding the sangamam. “Will the government submit an affidavit in the Supreme Court, favouring the traditions and rituals at the temple,’’ he said.
Earlier, various Hindu outfits as well as the BJP had been up in arms against the LDF government for submitting an affidavit in the top court favouring women’s entry to the temple.
Travancore Devaswom Board chairman P S Prasanth said Monday that the Board would highlight the temple’s rituals and traditions before the Supreme Court. “Everyone knows what is the prevailing tradition at the temple. We will do everything required to convince the court after consulting the legal experts,’’ he said.
The review petitions against the apex court’s judgment have been pending before the top court, with the matters arising out of the Sabarimala issue referred to a larger Constitution bench.