Sabarimala shrine dispute to go national, thanks to Sangh

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is taking up the Sabarimala movement to the national level in a big way, deploying its senior functionaries for coordinating legal as well as agitational activities related to issue.

According to highly-placed sources in the Sangh, three sah-sarakaryavaahs (joint general secretaries) – Arun Kumar, Mukunda CR, Dattatreya Hosabale – are directly monitoring the whole activities related to Sabarimala.

The Sangh is spreading awareness on the Sabarimala issue at different levels through baithaks (meetings), boudhiks (intellectual talks) and social media. The Sangh network has been communicated about the “sinister design” by the Left and other “so-called” secular forces who want to “alter” and “destroy” the traditions of Sabarimala, RSS sources said.

Vishwa Samvad Kendra (VSK), the media arm of the Sangh, has been tasked to popularise the movement by spreading the “right message” in social media, through videos and texts in various languages, sources said.

The RSS is trying to bridge the North-South “disconnect” by steadfastly emphasising that “Sabarimala is the Ayodhya of the south.”

In September last year, the Supreme Court had paved the way for the entry of women of all ages into the Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala in Kerala. In the past, women devotees of menstruating age were not permitted to enter the temple. Ever since the Supreme Court order came, Kerala has seen erupted in protests amid reports of some women trying to enter the Lord Ayyappa shrine.

Sources within the RSS have admitted that initially there was some kind of a “confusion” in the Sangh on how to deal with Sabarimala issue in the wake of Supreme Court’s judgment in September last year. A section within the RSS jumped the gun by welcoming the Supreme Court order.

Initially, the Sangh could not fathom the local sentiments associated with Lord Ayyappa and Sabarimala traditions, but it was taken aback to see the groundswell of anger against the Supreme Court verdict especially by the women in Kerala, a Sangh functionary told DNA on condition of anonymity.