Congress, BJP take on CPI-M over Sabarimala women entry issue

Thiruvananathapuram, Feb 9 : Kerala’s opposition Congress and BJP on Tuesday took on the CPI-M over a “suspected” dilution in the ruling party’s stand on the entry of women aged between 10 and 50 to the Sabarimala temple.
Even as the issue is before a seven member bench of the Supreme Court, the Congress last week said that if it wins the coming Assembly polls, it will bring legislation on women’s entry to the hilltop temple.
In a reaction, CPI-M Central Committee member M.V. Govindan, indirectly referring to the issue, said that “it was impractical to implement dialectical materialism in a society which was not even ready to accept materialism”.
This statement from Govindan was seen as a bid to win back the Hindu votes and then came the statement from CPI-M Politburo member M.A. Baby saying that a fresh affidavit on this would be given in the apex court. However, soon he backtracked and said what he meant was that once the verdict comes, there will be a detailed talk with all sections to decide the way ahead.
Soon after the apex court had allowed entry of all women into the temple a couple of years ago, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had moved the implement the verdict, and even went to the extent of heralding a “renaissance movement”.
But the issue had sparked off strong protests and led to confrontations between hardcore believers and the police. At one point, two women in the hitherto banned age group were able to get darshan, with a strong police force accompanying them.