Kottayam: The New York Times journalist Suhasini Raj, who trekked part-way up the Sabarimala hills in the backdrop of the Supreme Court verdict allowing entry of women of all age group into the hill shrine, is one of the top-notch scribes of the country.
Suhasini was the mainstay of the much-talked-about Cobrapost-Aaj Tak investigations dubbed 'Operation Duryodhana', which unearthed 11 parliamentarians accepting cash for asking questions in the Parliament in 2005.
The journo, hailing from Lucknow in UP, along with a colleague, a foreign national, got past Pamba without much difficulty as the police were not checking the age of woman pilgrims following the apex court order. As Suhasini started trekking from Pamba, a group of 15 protesters began heckling her, and stopped her from climbing the holy hills. Following violent protests, police threw a security cover to her and she resumed the trek under police protection.
But Suhasini and her colleague were forced to abort her trek and return as angry protesters formed a human wall in Appachimedu, which is quite near to the sanctum sanctorum. Fellow journalists, who were climbing the hill, also advised her to stop proceeding further in view of the volley of protests. Suhasini informed the protesters, before returning, that she was visiting the temple as part of her job and didn’t want to create a commotion.
After reaching Pamba, Suhasini told that she was forced to return as she was manhandled and stones were thrown at her.
The woman told protesters that she was a journalist and she was on her way to the shrine for carrying out her professional duty. The police told her that they were ready to provide her security but she decided not to climb the hills further, senior officers said.
The journalist and her colleague were later taken to Pamba police station. Suhasini, is the third woman in the 10-50 age group, who had to abort their trek following angry protests. One woman each from Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, had to abandon their plans to climb the hill at Nilakkal and Pamba, respectively, on Wednesday. But Suhasini got furthest up the hill after the landmark Supreme Court order permitting women between the age of 10 and 50 to enter the hill shrine.
Andhra Pradesh native Madhavi, who started to climb the hill from Pamba, had to immediately stop trekking following violent protests.
If Suhasini had been able to climb the hills, she would have become the first woman of the menstrual age group to visit the Sabarimala Temple of Lord Ayyappa after the Supreme Court order permitting women of all age groups to enter the shrine.
Operation Duryodhana
December 23, 2005, is a blot in the history of Indian democracy. On that day 11 MPs, 10 from Lok Sabha and one from Rajya Sabha, were shown the door for taking money for asking questions in the Parliament. The expose was made through a sting operation, code-named Operation Duryodhana, orchestrated by Aniruddha Bahal and Suhasini of cobrapost.com. After the revelations, a Lok Sabha panel under Pavankumar Bansal and a Rajya Sabha committee under Dr Karan Singh were constituted to look into the allegations, and the both rooted for the ouster of the tainted parliamentarians.
The parliamentarians took money from Bahal and Suhasini, masquerading as representatives of a fictitious organization named North Indian Small Manufacturer’s Organization, for raising questions of the organization’s interest in both the Houses. In a span of eight months, 25 questions out of 60 submitted by the investigative journos, were raised in the Parliament.
Suhasini was also part of Tehelka.com sting operation, Operation West End, which nailed former BJP leader Bangaru Laxman and former Defence Minister George Fernandez in a defence deal scam.
