On Saturday, when the state government filed writ petitions in the Supreme Court on the issue of women of all ages entering the Sabarimala temple, the Congress and the BJP pulled up the government for its alleged volte-face in view of the elections.
However, Devaswom Minister VN Vasavan said the state government’s stand on the matter was in line with the affidavit it filed in the Supreme Court in 2007.
“In 2007, we filed an affidavit saying that ritual experts should decide this matter. We still maintain that position,” he told the media.
Mr. Vasavan said the Supreme Court was only trying to clarify certain constitutional aspects of the matter. “We have instructed the Advocate General and constitutional experts of the Supreme Court to submit a response,” he said.
“The party’s stand is the same as the government’s stand. The government is with the loyalists. We have always been with the loyalists,” he said.
Mr. Vasavan claimed that the Supreme Court’s 2018 verdict allowing women of all age groups to enter the temple came after women lawyers associated with the BJP approached the Supreme Court. “It was (a group of) young BJP lawyers who filed the case and got the verdict. They then called it a historic judgement. But they soon changed their stance,” he argued.
However, AICC general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal, MP, objected to the government’s change of stance with regard to the assembly elections, calling it a “desperate attempt to escape from the difficult political situation it is currently facing”.
Speaking to the media in Guruvayur, he called it a political turn driven by electoral pressures. He said if the government had taken a conciliatory approach soon after the Supreme Court verdict and informed the court about the practical difficulties in implementing the order, the state could have avoided the riots and tensions that followed.
“Devotees would not face hardships, property would not be damaged and many people would not be forced to face legal cases,” he said, blaming the CPI(M)’s “anti-religious” stance for the crisis.
Former BJP state president Kummanam Rajasekharan termed the government’s stand as “hypocritical” and asked the government to urgently withdraw the cases filed against those who fought to preserve temple customs. He alleged that trying to correct the affidavit without withdrawing the cases filed against Sabarimala devotees reeks of double standards.
Former BJP state president V Muraleedharan hit out at the CPI(M) and the Congress for trying to mislead the stalwarts on the issue. He said that while the government tried to give the impression that it had changed its stand on the issue of allowing women of all ages to enter the temple, it had actually betrayed the devotees. Instead of the government openly saying it opposes women’s entry, he says he believes such decisions should be made by experts.
The Congress, he said, initially sided with the devotees and then slowly withdrew from the scene.
Published – 14 March 2026 21:42 IST
