RSS to iron out issues over women entry into Sabarimala

Thiruvananthapuram: The Sangh Parivar organisations have cautiously launched an exercise to iron out the differences among themselves on the issue of the entry of women into Sabarimala temple as ordered by the Supreme Court.  While the national leadership of the RSS has been consistently supporting the entry of women in Sabarimala, its local leadership as well as that of the BJP have voiced their opposition to the idea. A section of the BJP State leadership had earlier welcomed the Supreme Court order but has now retracted on its stand. The party has now given the green signal to the Yuva Morcha and the Mahila Morcha to protest against the Supreme Court's judgment, thanks to the party workers expressing their dissent openly.

A day after the historical judgment on Sabarimala had come allowing women of all age groups to enter the shrine, the RSS national leadership had backed women's entry in temples and said such unfair traditions should be avoided. It was Bhaiyyaji Joshi, RSS general secretary who addressed the national council at Jodhpur in Rajasthan, who said that "unfair traditions" have resulted in the ban of women in many temples. However, Sangh ideologue P. Parameswaran had said the other day that the Supreme Court judgment is against the tradition.

Interestingly, RSS state secretary and Prantha Karyavahak P.  Gopalankutty Master said implementation of the court directive should not lead a "division among the Hindu society". He was cautious in his reply on the raging controversy on the Sabarimala issue.  "We respect the SC verdict, but people should not feel that a reform is being imposed upon them. It should be implemented only in due course after reaching a consensus," said Gopalankutty Master.

BJP state president P. S. Sreedharan Pillai had also taken a safer stand initially on the SC verdict where he sought more time to study the judgment. On Sunday, Mr Pillai along with his predecessor Kumm-anam Rajasekharan, Governor of Mizoram, had attended a meeting of Sangh Parivar organisations in New Delhi. Mr Rajsekhaeran, who has been holding the post of national general secretary of the Sabarimala Ayyappa Seva Samajam, is keen on leading the protest. But his position of Governor of Mizoram has put a stop to his hopes now.

A top RSS source told DC that if not for the Assembly elections happening during December in Mizoram, Mr Rajasekharan would have bid good-bye to the gubernatorial role and led the protest against the SC verdict in Kerala. Interestingly, a section of the BJP state leaders is not keen on him making a foothold in the state politics again.