There is no room for doubt that the present situation is the creation of the apex court. However, the role of Pinarayi Vijayan led government in Kerala in handling the events have been no less abominable. I cannot say if the apex court judgment in the hands of Pinarayi led Government can be compared to a bouquet of flowers in the hands of a monkey or a murderous weapon in the hands of a serial murderer. The fact remains that the fear of their rights related to their faith being violated is writ large and there were reports of protests from devotees even in far away Australia, Canada and the US of A.
The conflict is apparently in identifying Hindu religious institutions of a public character and religious denomination.
Just because public are allowed to visit a temple it doesn’t mean that it is a public place, like, say a park or a theatre. (In fact couldn’t the Chamber of the CJI be considered to be a public place being funded by the tax payers’ money? Well, I can almost hear some legal pundit shouting blasphemous!)
Coming to denomination, here are a few definitions of the term from various dictionaries/thesauruses. *(Theology) a group having a distinctive interpretation of a religious faith and usually its own organization- Collins English Dictionary *A class of persons or things distinguished by a specific name-Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary *A set of the same persons, called by the same name and therefore of the same views.-Dict
have formed his opinion on this supposed centuries old tradition at sabarimala after reading only one side of the argument !
And that side excludes any reading of the history and antiquity of this supposed tradition.
He has also written that the temple authorities can decide whom to invite for the rituals and pujas at the temple. But he has not stated who or which is that temple authority in the case of sabarimala!
Apparently, he is under the impression that that authority is someone who is inclined to stick to this 27 year old tradition of barring womxen of a certain age group at the temple!
The authority vested with all administrative powers is the Travancore devasxwom Board, not the tuntri or the mel shanti ! The responsibilities of the tuntri are only to consecrate the deixty and invoke and confer divine powers upon the deixty during the periodic opening of the temple (nada opening). The pujaris sole function is to conduct the daily rituals and pujas.
The writer is not aware of this inconvenient detail only because he has read up only one side of the argument (even while stating gratuitously that he waited for the intellectuals to speak before stating his opinion)!
And as far as the so called tradition is concerned, he has taken the word of those who claim to stand exclusively for the devotees as the incontrovertible truth.
The tradition of barring womxen of this age group at sabarimala has a very hoary history. It is not backed by any extract in any of the
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