Thiruvananthapuram: Devaswom minister Kadakampally Surendran on Friday said that there were reasons to suspect that the entry of women activists was a conspiracy to intentionally stoke unrest in Sabarimala. “I decided to step in after I received information about a move to create big trouble,” the minister said in a Facebook post. Earlier in the day, an apparently agitated minister had said that Sabarimala was not the place for activists to make a political point, and that the government was not obliged to protect such people.
“That there were no major protests during the two-and-a-quarter hours time it took the activist women to walk from Pampa to Nadappanthal hints at the possibility of some undercurrents. The plan was to unleash violence across the state the moment the women start ascending the 18 holy steps. The state has no obligation to protect those hand in gloves with groups looking for a chance to create bloodshed in Sannidhanam," he said.
The minister had directly instructed IG Sreejith to immediately turn back the two women who had reached up to Nadappanthal. The women who had given the government jitters were Rehana Fathima, a BSNL employee, and journalist Kavitha. Fathima was in police gear as she was escorted by the police. Top government sources said there were intelligence failures, and that it would be probed. “The women were taken towards Sannidhanam without checking their antecedents,” a top source said.
CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, in a hurriedly convened press conference on Friday, sought to temper the outburst of the devaswom minister. “The CPM is not against activists visiting Sabarimala. Our only contention is that they should not go to Sabarimala with the intention of instigating trouble,” Kodiyeri said. He said that only those who come with the intention of creating trouble should be prevented from entering.
