Sabarimala row: Now, Kerala govt plans 'Million women's wall' to prevent medieval ‘madness’

Kochi, Dec 2: In an attempt to garner support after the protests by right-wing groups over the entry of women of all ages to the Sabarimala shrine, Kerala government announced a "women wall" would be formed on January 1, from the northern district of Kasargode to the state capital.

Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, announcing 600-km long Women Wall on Saturday said, "No one can push back the progressive society of Kerala into the dark ages." He was speaking after a meeting with over 50 socio-cultural organisations in Thiruvanantha puram, reports PTI.

He 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.

Taking to Twitter, Thomas Isaac, the number two in the Kerala cabinet tweeted, "Great Wall of Kerala, to prevent the state from sliding back into medieval madness, is going to be raised by a million women from one end of Kerala to the other on New Years Day...Come join the Resistance..."

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had earlier said that Sabarimala "won't be allowed to become an Ayodhya."

Meanwhile, a four-member BJP team handpicked by party chief Amit Shah is in Kerala today to meet party workers in connection with the Sabarimala temple row. In Kochi, they will meet devotees and party workers to get a "first-hand account" of what the BJP called "atrocities being committed against the satyagrahis" at the Ayyappa temple.

The four members comprising Saroj Pandey, Vinod Sonkar, Pralhad Joshi and Nalin Kumar Kateel will submit their report to Amit Shah within 15 days, the party said in a statement.

Kerala has been on the boil since the September 28 Supreme Court verdict allowed women of all ages into Sabarimala temple, reversing the shrine's tradition of barring girls and women of menstruating age-10-50 years.

No women in the menstruating age have been able to enter the Sabarimala shrine ever since the Supreme Court's September 28 order. The Travancore Devaswom Board, which manages the temple, justified the restriction saying the entry of women and girls of menstruating age was against the celibate nature of the deity.