By
Aditya Aamir
After
menstrual age women Kanaka Durga and Bindu Ammini’s wee-hour intrusion into the
Sabarimala Ayyappa Temple, there’s need for a reckoning. One leading newspaper
termed the accomplishment, “red-letter day” and “emancipation of women”. The
two women broke a “long-standing taboo”, the paper declared. Hardly. The taboo
was broken time and again in the years before 1991. Then, too, they were
dismissed with “purification” rites. And even after Kanaka Durga and Bindu,
women of 10-50 age continue to be barred by cop and devotee.
So,
Kanaka Durga and Bindu can stop applying the kohl to their triumphant eyes.
Emancipation of women is a whole big different elephant. Chief Minister
Pinarayi Vijayan’s plan to emancipate Sabarimala, turn it into a pilgrim
tourism hub, sucks. He should procure a panda from Sichuan, China. Build a
Sabarinagari – ‘Never-Never Land’ – in the vicinity of the Sabarimala Ayyappa
temple. Neon-lit ‘Sabarinagari’ with Russian and Chinese attractions will tempt
41-day fasting Ayyappa celibates to break vow, leaving free the hill for women
devotees of all age to climb hill.
That
is not what is happening. Since so-called “red-letter day”, one menstrual-age
woman and a transgender have been barred entry. A 47-year-old Sri Lankan
‘yuvati’ left, cursing the Kerala Police for halting her, pissed off that
husband and teenage son made it, but not she. The transgender from Tamil Nadu
found a wall of Ayyappa devotees blocking her route. So, it is an either-or
situation prevailing in Sabarimala. Police or devotee stand between women’s
emancipation and bondage. The police, if they are not in mufti, will not
assist. The devotees, if they are not asleep, will resist.
By
all reckoning, the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple continues to remain out of bounds
for ‘yuvati’. The police cannot be always at beck and call. And Pinarayi
Vijayan cannot be CM forever. The January 22 Supreme Court hearing of review
petitions may go either way. Kanaka Durga and Bindu made a difference to an
extent, but there is the ordinance way. Congress MPs are talking of taking that
way. Congress has sort of lagged in Ayyappa stakes and wants to make amends.
Prime
Minister Narendra Modi is expected in Pathanamthitta “in three days” and the
Congress will bring up ‘ordinance’. If Modi delivers, good for him. If he
doesn’t, good for the Congress. It will have something to cradle, crow about.
Beat the BJP with. Most probably, Modi will not bite, not after he refused to
take the ordinance route to Ram Mandir. Even, otherwise, ‘kaamdar’ Modi likes
to keep up the impression that he is too hard at work to bother over such
mundane things.
Wily!
Modi and Pinarayi share that trait. The atheist and the theist. Materialists at
the core. It will leave both of them in the red. Pinarayi, definitely, is in
the red. The 10-50 age restriction was the Kerala High Court’s doing after
women entered before 1991 and were reported. The SC jettisoned the HC ruling on
September28, 2018. But neither “long-standing taboo” nor “red-letter day” holds
for Ayyappa devotees. Meaning, Pinarayi Vijayan is no great sheikh, shakes!
Sneaking
two women into the temple in the wee hours makes no “red-letter day”, and
cannot be “emancipation of women.” In current terminology, it is “surgical
strike” negated Pakistani-style! Besides, the definition of “woman Ayyappa
devotee” is restricted: 10-50 age bracket; respects Ayyappa’s celibate status
and is ‘ready to wait’ till after age 50/55. The clandestine foray of January
2, 2019 does not qualify on any of these aspects.
The
secrecy of the visit and the “purification” of the temple take away from the
triumph. The “purification ploy” is built into the Ayyappa-tradition system to
deny such claims. If a pair of commie women activists sneak into a Malappuram
mosque and offer Friday prayers, will that amount to “emancipation of woman”?
The Muslim clergy will react most indignantly and there would be consequences.
Similarly, a breach of Christian church customs.
Kanaka
Durga and Bindu Aminni were ‘programmed’ to buck tradition. Chosen because no
classified woman Ayyappa devotee would undertake the journey. For Bindu and
Kanaka Durga, Ayyappa traditions do not count. There is no belief, there is no
devotion, there is no sense of guilt. The duo’s entry was planned. December 24,
2018 they did a “recce”. Thereafter, they vanished. To surface in a Kadagu
lodge. January 1, 2019 they took part in the Women’s Wall. January 2, 2019 they
“made history.” Women’s emancipation was never the goal.
The
five Kerala cops, who escorted them to Sabarimala, into the temple, were
Vijayan handpicks. All five hail from his village Pinarayi. Only nine people
knew of ‘Operation Breach’: Kanaka Durga, Bindu Ammini, Pinarayi Vijayan,
Kottayam police superintendent Harishankar and the five Pinarayi cops. It
helped that ‘Chief Minister’ Pinarayi is also ‘Home Minister’ Pinarayi. The
Devaswom Board was kept in the dark. So was DGP Loknath Behera. And what do we
have? A Tamil Sri Lankan yuvati cursing cops, and a Tamil Nadu transgender
shying away from bare-chested Ayyappans. (IPA
Service)
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