Kerala Police have arrested 3,505 people, till Sunday, in 529 cases registered in connection with protests in and around Sabarimala between October 17 and 22 against the entry of women of menstruating age to the Ayyappa Temple.
Pathanamthitta police have also published a new list of 210 protesters with their photographs. Many of the arrested protesters have been released on bail.
The arrest of the protesters has set off a war of words between the BJP and the ruling CPM. BJP national president Amit Shah said in Kannur, on Saturday, that the state government was using brute force to crush resistance against the implementation of the Supreme Court judgment which allowed entry for women of all ages to the temple. On Sunday, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan hit out against Shah’s threat to topple the state government by saying the BJP president did not have the “weight” to do it.
The jibes continued on Monday. While BJP general secretary Sobha Surendran took on Vijayan for referring to Shah’s physique, Minister of State K J Alphons said in New Delhi that Vijayan’s statement did not befit his office. Senior CPM leader and Public Works Minister G Sudhakaran called Shah a “political goonda”.
Clashes erupted between the protesters and police at Nilakkal, the base camp of Sabarimala, on October 17 over the entry of women aged between 10 and 50 years. The government maintained that “criminals” had triggered the violence while the BJP accused the government of targeting devotees through the crackdown.
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