* Hundreds of women devotees of Lord Ayyappa, the eternally celibate deity of Sabarimala, picketed the road to the hill shrine and prevented women they suspected were of menstrual age from proceeding to the shrine some 20 km away.
* The Travancore Devaswon Board (TDB), meanwhile, went into a huddle with stakeholders, including the Pandalam royal family representatives and priests, to soothe frayed tempers amid escalating protests by the Hindu right and common Ayyappa devotees. There was, however, no breakthrough. The meeting also attended by Ayyappa Seva Samajam and Yoga Kshema Sabha ended in a deadlock as the TDB stuck to its stand of not filing a review petition.
* PG Sasikumar Varma, the president of the Pandalam palace managing committee, said that he has urged Devaswom Board to file a review petition. "Until it (petition) is disposed off status quo should be maintained," he said.
* Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan urged the people to maintain law and order. "We will not allow anyone to take law and order in their hands. The government will ensure facilities to devotees to go to Sabarimala Temple and offer prayers. Government will not submit a review petition. We've said in court that we'll implement the order."
* To protest against the SC's verdict, a woman tried to hang herself in Thiruvananthapuram.
Kerala: A woman attempted to hang herself from a tree in Thiruvananthapuram in protest against the Supreme Court's… https://t.co/FcS4pxXzYj
— ANI (@ANI) 1539681611000
* On Monday, thousands of BJP workers trooped into the Kerala capital demanding that the Left Front government file a review petition against the Supreme Court verdict allowing female devotees of menstrual age to offer prayers at the shrine.
* The protesters, some clad in black and many others carrying garlanded pictures of the eternally celibate deity, had begun the "Save Sabrimala March" from Pandalam in Pathanamthitta district to Thiruvananthapuram, a distance of around 90 km, on October 10.
* The protest march concluded just two days before the Sabarimala shrine opens to the public on October 17. It would be closed on October 22 after the five-day monthly puja during the Malayalam month of Thulam.
* Several NDA leaders including actor-turned-MP Suresh Gopi, Nalin Kumar Kateel, BDJS chief and Rajya Sabha MP Thushar Vellappally and state BJP president P S Sreedharan Pillai were at the forefront of the march.
* The state BJP president P S Sreedharan Pillai said if the government failed to resolve the issue "in the next 24 hours", the NDA will formulate an elaborate agitation programme to "reach our goal".
* Several religious outfits have also threatened protest against the Supreme Court order allowing women between 10 and 50 years of age into the shrine.
* The Shiv Sena recently warned of "mass suicides" if women of menstrual age were allowed into the temple. Some other organisations have said women and girls aged between 10 and 50 years will have to tread on them before entering the temple.
* Actor-turned-BJP politician Kollam Thulashi went to the entent of saying women of "banned age" visiting the shrine should be "ripped apart".
* On September 28, the apex court allowed women of all ages to enter the Sabarimala Temple saying that "no physiological and biological factor can be given legitimacy if it doesn't pass the test of conditionality".
* The Sabarimala Temple, located in Kerala's Pathanamthitta district, is dedicated to the Hindu deity Ayyappa. The temple management argues that the deity is eternally celibate, and thus women of menstruating ages should be forbidden from entering the temple.
from Times of India https://ift.tt/2EruAA3
