Sabarimala annual festival cancelled, hill shrine's opening indefinitely postponed

Kerala Government, after holding a closed-door meeting with Travancore Devaswom Board officials and Sabarimala thanthri Kantararu Mahesh Mohanaru in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday, has indefinitely postponed the opening of the hill shrine and has called off this year's annual festival scheduled to begin on June 19.

When Devaswom Minister Kadakampally Surendran announced the decision to the press, he was flanked by the thanthri and TDB president and commissioner N Vasu. The high-level meeting was necessitated by the thanthri's letter to the Devaswom commissioner on June 10 stating that pilgrims should not be allowed to enter Sabarimala in the context of the worsening COVID-19 situation.

The media had apparently got the letter before the Devaswom commissioner had received it. Stung, Vasu said he had not received the missive and insisted that he had consulted with the thanthri and also senior members of his family before recommending the opening of Sabarimala for monthly pujas on June 14.

The BJP gave a political colour to the correspondence by stating that the government should defer to the wishes of the thanthri. It was also insinuated that the decision was arbitrarily taken by the TDB.

However, after the meeting convened by the minister on Thursday, thanthri Mahesh said the TDB commissioner had talked to him before and after the video conference held by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan with heads of religious institutions and representatives of community organisations on the question of opening places of worship.

Thanthri Mahesh said the decision to open Sabarimala was not taken arbitrarily by the TDB. "I myself had written to the TDB earlier saying that the festival could be held on this date," the thanthri said. "When the commissioner spoke to me before and after the video conference with the chief minister, I just listened to him. I did not say anything against the decision because I thought I had no right to oppose an order issued by the Centre. I was under the impression that any orders passed by the Centre had to be followed. It was only later we realised that temples could take an independent stand on the issue," the thanthri said.

He said he was taking a purely practical approach, and was not under any kid of pressure. "Health alone was the deciding factor and no one had attempted to put pressure on me," he said. "The situation now is not like last month. The virus spread is worsening. If anyone tests positive, the festival will be affected. Everyone will have to go into quarantine. The festival will have to be abandoned midway," he said.

The thanthri also said the government had acted in the best interests of the devotees. "Now when we raised this issue, the government was highly receptive," he said.

The devaswom minister said though the government was fully aware of the perils of social gatherings in places of worship, it still decided to permit their opening but with stricter controls only to prevent anyone from playing opportunistic politics. "Just imagine what would have happened if the government had disallowed the opening of temples after the Centre had given the go ahead," Kadakampally Surendran said.

He said that both the Congress and the BJP wanted places of worship opened. Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennihala had called for the opening of temples on June 1 itself, the minister said. Congress leader K Muraleedharan, he said, had even threatened to break the law and enter Guruvayur temple.