Trupti Desai, a women’s rights activist, was forced to leave Cochin, yesterday, by the devotees of Lord Ayyappa. Ms. Desai arrived at the Cochin Airport to visit the Sabarimala temple with 7 women for ‘darshan,’ but was boycotted by the devotees gathered at the Airport.
Ms. Desai arrived at the Mumbai Airport, yesterday. Trupti Desai was accompanied by the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) jawans and the Mumbai police personnel at the Airport. They protected her from the protestors gathered outside the airport, abusing her for attempting to visit Lord Ayyappa’s Sabarimala temple.
Ms. Desai reached Pune, today morning. Speaking about her next attempt to visit the temple, she said, she will use ‘guerilla tactics’ and will visit the temple unannounced. For her next visit, she asked for security from the Kerala police to visit the temple.
She said, “When we landed at Kochi airport, protestors gathered there hurled abuses at us and threatened us to go back. The police, too, requested us to leave saying anything can happen, We didn’t want anything happen to the people of the state because of us, so we decided to return.”
Ms. Trupti addressed the media and said, “Protestors were resorting to violence and hooliganism, they should not have done that. They call themselves Lord Ayyappa’s devotees but I don’t think they can be his devotees. They were verbally abusing us and threatening us. If they wanted to oppose us, they should have protested in Nilakkal but they knew that if we reached Nilakkal, we would advance to Pamba and return only after Darshan. They were scared and hence stopped us at the airport itself.”
The temple was opened yesterday for a two month pilgrimage season. After the Supreme Court (SC) lifted the ban on women’s entry in the Sabarimala temple, this is the fourth time the temple will open for pilgrims.
The devotees of Lord Ayyappa have been on the edge to prevent women belonging to the menstrual age group from entering the temple. No woman between the ages of 10 and 50 years has entered the shrine till now.
Following the Supreme Court’s verdict, Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) was imposed in Nilakkal, Pamba and Sannidhanman as a precaution against violence and protests.
