Sabarimala standoff: Devotees thwart woman scribe’s shrine visit plans, observe hartal

After aborted attempts by a couple of women of menstruating age on Wednesday, Thursday saw another woman trying her luck to enter Sabarimala — this time by a New Delhi-based journalist of a US media house. 

Accompanied by a male colleague, a foreign national, the scribe was forced to make a descent back to Pamba on the foothills from Marakkoottam after angry Ayyappa devotees prevented them from proceeding further. They were escorted to safety under police escort.

Meanwhile, sporadic violence marked the ‘hartal’ called by Hindu right groups in Kerala over Wednesday’s police action against those opposing entry of women of menstrual age into the shrine.

By all available indications so far no girl or woman in the age group of 10 to 50 years has visited the shrine of the ‘Naishtik Brahmachari’, the eternally celibate deity, since the time the doors to the temple opened Wednesday.

Madhavi, a 40 something gutsy woman from Andhra Pradesh, had also made a similar attempt on Wednesday but was forced to retreat.

According to some accounts, the woman journalist was greeted with slogans of “lady go back” by protesters who want the long-standing ban on female faithfuls of menstrual age that was lifted by the Supreme Court in a landmark judgement on September 28 to be back again. She later claimed stones were hurled and “something hit me on my shoulder”.