THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala state government has announced a Woman Wall in Sabarimala on New Year's Day as the Bharatiya Janata Party sending a central team to the state. Finance Minister of Kerala, Thomas Isaac said, “Great Wall of Kerala, to prevent the state from sliding back into medieval madness, going to be raised by a million women from one end of Kerala to other on New Year Day. Come, join the Resistance. It will be very, very happy new year.”
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had announced a 600 km long Women Wall over the weekend, saying, “No one can push back the progressive society of Kerala into the dark ages.” He met with prominent caste-based and social organisations, including the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana (SNDP) Yogam and others in a bid to gather support following recent protests by right-wing organisations across Kerala over entry of women of all ages in the Sabarimala shrine. Addressing reporters after the meeting, Vijayan said, “As part of the combined efforts of all these organisations which took part in the meeting, a women's wall will be formed on January 1 from the northern district of Kasargode till Thiruvananthapuram, to show the country the secular and progressive mindset of the state.”
The CM has also sought support of “progressively-thinking” minds of the state to come out and pledge support to the cause in order to safeguard the “secular” fabric of Kerala. The meeting came on the eve of a four-member BJP delegation's visit to Sabarimala to meet people and workers and assess the “atrocities being committed against satyagrahis”. The delegation included BJP general secretary Saroj Pandey, national president of the party's Schedule Caste morcha Vinod Sonkar, members of Parliament Pralhad Joshi and Nalin Kumar Kateel. The ruling party released a statement saying, the team will submit its report within 15 days to the party chief.
Kerala has been on a boil since the Supreme Court's verdict on September 28 allowing women of all ages into Sabarimala temple, in a reversal of its tradition of barring girls and women of menstruating age.
