Stone-throwing Ayyappa devotees stopped a Delhi-based woman journalist during her hill trek towards the Sabarimala temple on Thursday and forced her to turn back.
No woman of reproductive age has yet been able to enter the temple despite the Supreme Court last month quashing the centuries-old ban on their entry, with Right-wing mobs foiling similar efforts on Wednesday too.
The Kerala government, which is determined to implement the apex court verdict, had provided a police escort to the journalist, Suhasini Raj, who some reports said is in her 40s.
But the journalist, who works for The New York Times and was accompanied by a male colleague, a foreigner, said they decided to return after the “aggressive mob” hurled stones. A stone hit her on the shoulder, Raj said.
A case has been registered against the devotees.
Some reporters of Malayalam news channels who had followed the journalist on the trek said the devotees chanted “ladies go back”. Some allegedly hurled abuses at her. Police threw a security ring around the woman and her colleague.
Raj told the protesters she was a journalist and was visiting the shrine to carry out her professional duties. Later, on a video posted on social media and telecast by TV channels, she said the police had tried their best to help her and her colleague reach the temple.
“While we were midway to the temple, the mob got very huge and very aggressive and started throwing stones and something hit me on my
shoulder,” she said. She added that she and her colleague decided to return because they didn’t want “anybody to get hurt”.
Police action had left many among the mob injured on Wednesday, provoking a hartal by radical Hindu groups across Kerala on Thursday. Stones were hurled at state buses at several places. Pathanamthitta, the district where Sabarimala is located, observed a complete shutdown.
The BJP and its allies supported the shutdown called by the Sabarimala Samarakashna Samithi, an outfit of devotees. The Congress did not back the strike calls but demonstrated against Wednesday’s police action.
Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who is abroad, accused the RSS and its allied organisations of trying to “destroy” the unique nature of the Sabarimala temple by “unleashing terror”.
The Travancore Devaswom Board, which manages the temple, will meet on Friday to find an amicable solution. Ahead of the meeting, board president A. Padmakumar asked if the protests would end if the board filed a review plea in the Supreme Court against its verdict.