"I want to tell governments and courts, 'give orders that can be implemented'. They should not give orders that work to break the faith of people," Shah said in Kannur on Saturday.
Throwing his weight behind protests against the court order and the state government's arrest of over 2,000 agitators, Shah said, "BJP is ready to go to any extent to protest for the rights of Ayyappa devotees. Beliefs should be respected. Man-woman equality is must, but gender equality cannot be established by giving entry to men and women together. There are several temples that deny men entry," he said.
The BJP chief was speaking at Sivagiri Mutt in Varkala while inaugurating the 90th anniversary of Mahasamadhi of Sree Narayana Guru.
Hours earlier, Shah had landed in Kannur on a chartered flight (a Falcon 2000), becoming the first passenger to land at the airport even before its formal inauguration on December 9.
"Kerala now experiences an Emergency-like situation," Shah said, going on to accuse CM Pinarayi Vijayan of playing with fire in trying to "suppress protests" of Sabarimala devotees. "Using the court order as cover, the state is trying to turn Kerala into a battlefield," he said and that the state did not show the same enthusiasm in fighting floods.
"I hear people speak of article 14, but under the articles 25 and 26 of the Constitution, I also have the right to live by my religion. How can one fundamental right override another fundamental right," he asked. He said Hindu traditions honour women as during Dussehra and Navratri daughters are worshipped. "Women sit next to us for pujas...we have respected women but there are temples with different traditions," he said.
Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan shrugged off the BJP chief's accusations of an "Emergency-like situation in Kerala" as "ramblings" against his "democratically-elected government", saying it only "revealed the true colours of RSS and Sangh Parivar".
Shah said BJP and the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana (SNDP) Yogam, which has considerable clout in the politically significant Ezhava community, would jointly fight attempts to attack Hindu tradition and beliefs in the name of implementing the SC order that set aside the shrine's tradition barring females in the age 10 to 50 years on the ground that the deity is an eternal bachelor and does not welcome women of menstruating age.
Though he shared the dais with the BJP national president, SNDP Yogam general secretary Vellappally Natesan steered clear of the temple issue. He had earlier hit headlines for his contradictory views on the agitation. On Saturday, Natesan stressed the need for unity between SNDP Yogam and Sivagiri Mutt.
SNDP Yogam and Sivagiri Mutt should continue to work together for a better tomorrow, Shah said. He announced the Centre's decision to sanction Rs 20 crore for the Varkala Sivagiri railway station to help improve facilities for Sivagiri pilgrims.
Junior minister of tourism K J Alphons sanctioned works worth Rs 70 crore to the mutt, towards including Sivagiri in the national pilgrim tourism circuit.
from Times of India https://ift.tt/2AvOeHb
