Updates 21/11/2018 1100Hrs
Pilgrimage going on smoothly, but with much less foot-fall. This fact and with the drubbing of Kerala High Court;
Restriction lifted; Pilgrims can rest at Valiya Nadapanthal {an area found sensitive by the police}.
8 BJP activists in preventive detention; and they have also been released with no charges leveled. BJP MPs V.Muralidharan and Nalin Kumar Kateel ensured that no charges goes against them. There were two instances where police forcibly evicted the pilgrims who were chanting
"Ayyappa bhajans". Yesterday that new "tradition" also got broken, when the BJP MPs sat
along side the pilgrims and chanted
"Ayyappa bhajans". The police had to stand by. So brick by brick police is now asked to take back any draconian steps they have during the last week.
Added later: Looks like the police is back to its old policies after the two MPs left the hill temple. Today Pon Radhakrishnan is making a visit and he too may stay up at the hill till the temple closes for the day. I saw the visuals at Janam TV; foot-fall at the shrine is very very less. In fact it is much lower than the crowd which comes every month during the first few days when the temple opens for
darshan.
Sabari Mala is now pretty much a temple for Kerala Police.
Union minister Pon Radhakrishnan heads to Sabarimala. And he is going to visit as an pilgrim, since he has completed all
the mandatory rituals and have the Irumudi kettu etc. And when he makes a pilgrimage at least the Tamil media would have to give some coverage of the Sabari Mala issues.
The Kerala High Court is hearing another set of
petitions regarding Sabari Mala today. The petitions challenge the imposition of Cr.PC 144 in the shrine and surrounding areas, and how police is taking suo-moto decisions, when ideally the Travancore Devaswom Board has to requisition help. The Kerala Police has now realised that they have received a mighty hit on their H&D. They are now trying to recoup that by putting up posters showcasing their "help" to the pilgrims. A sample can be seen at the
Facebook page of Thrissur City Police of which Yathish Chandra was the Police Commissioner
.
This
news report in Malayalam (from Mathrubhumi.com), pretty much confirms what we had said in this thread
. CPI(M) feared that
Sangh Parivar would completely take over Sabari Mala
. That fear naturally was also passed onto K.P who too took many draconian steps so that they would not lose their H&D. The Kerala CM now officially confirmed that his assurance to women pilgrims would only be a safe journey from Nilakkal Base camp. Till they reach that point, their safety & well being remains with them. Kerala Govt. is NOT having the enthusiasam which they showed two months back; when the government and police were desperately trying to send some woman up the shrine. Media's women crew, activists, fake-Hindus and even mentally challenged women were encouraged to go.
My gut feeling is that Cr.PC 144 would be lifted, and the pilgrim flow would be normalised. Kerala Govt. is now on the path of reconciliation. For all you know there may have been back room negotiations with BJP and Congress; and every one agreeing upon that the pilgrimage should go as smooth as possible. With this
"no security till base camp" and K.P detailing (unofficially) WPCs to check the ages of women pilgrims; I don't think so any more feminazis would make an attempt to go up the shrine.
chetak wrote:It is more of a deterrence, something to show the flag and warn folks that they are under surveillance and to prevent misadventure.
UlanBatori wrote:They can't operate 24 hrs a day, the cost is waaaaaay too much. So this is a spot-check, maybe 3 times day.
Google maps of Sabari Mala area. The roads which pilgrims take etc. are clearly seen. The view from the helicopter cannot be much different, but perhaps from a very lower level. But along the trek route there are many points which have tin roofing, and many which also has forest cover. A general overview of the pilgrim's movements can be seen, and the police officer sitting in the helo can pass on the message on the police wireless. But beyond that, I don't think they can do much.
The helo patrols are only limited to very few days (and that too it cannot be three times a day). There was a temporary helipad at Nilakkal base camp, but I don't think it is 100% operational. So the helos will have to start from the Naval Air station at Kochi.
UlanBatori wrote:police said the eight were taken into preventive custody by police from 'Sannidhanam' on Tuesday night based on intelligence report that they were at the shrine to create trouble.
The "intelligence report" they cite is a leaked letter from BJP state officials in which they instruct BJP units to send in cadre to the shrine on specific days. Looks like some police officer recognized these people as the ones listed in the letter and detained them. But they cannot do this always and every time as there is no order which says that BJP or RSS workers should NOT enter this shrine (though CPI(M) would love to get such an order).