Thiruvananthapuram, India:
11.55am Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday defended the act of two women who entered Sabarimala temple on Wednesday, saying they did not arrive in a helicopter to have 'darshan'.
"These two women came just like any other pilgrim and went up the way that all pilgrims go to the temple. They never came on a helicopter to have darshan," Vijayan told the media here.
He said other pilgrims made the process of 'darshan' smooth when the two women pilgrims prayed at the temple.
"This is normally what happens... when pilgrims make arrangements for other pilgrims to have a 'darshan'," said Vijayan.
The temple was shut for an hour for "purification rituals" after Vijayan on Wednesday morning confirmed that Bindu and Kanaka Durga had 'darshan' at 3.30 a.m. In the 10-50 age group that remained banned until the recent Supreme Court verdict, both had been prevented on December 24 by predominantly male pilgrims from entering the hill shrine.
On Thursday, Vijayan reiterated that the state government had abided by the Supreme Court directive for allowing women of all age groups to pray at the Sabarimala temple.
"On Wednesday, a very surprising thing happened when the temple tantri closed the temple. This is an act which should not have happened as it was a blatant violation of the Supreme Court order," the Chief Minister said.
"He has every right as a person to differ with the supreme court order... but if he is not able to digest the verdict, he could well have quit his post as he cannot defy the law of the land. The Travancore Devasom Board is the custodian of the temple and they should seriously look into what happened on Wednesday," said Vijayan.
Vijayan went on to add that there was no protest at all from the ordinary people including women, over the praying of the two women at the Sabarimala temple.
"But the trouble started after the Sangh parivar forces went on a rampage attacking police, damaging numerous vehicles. We have decided that at no cost will the authorities be silent and very strong action would be there against the law breakers," said Vijayan.
Vijayan also thanked the women of Kerala who made the January 1 'Women's Wall' programme a huge success.
"The staging of this event has scripted a new history and has laid the foundation of a very strong Kerala," added Vijayan.
11.22am (UAE time): A dawn-to-dusk Kerala shutdown call, given by the Sabarimala Karma Samithi (SKS) to protest against the visit of two women to the Sabarimala temple on Wednesday, evoked a mixed response in the state on Thursday.
The SKS said the shutdown was intended to oppose the role of the Kerala government which apparently facilitated the entry of the women inside the temple before dawn on Wednesday.
There were skirmishes at various places between the organisers of the shutdown and those who tried to resist it.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Sangh parivar forces have pledged their support to the SKS shutdown call, and their activists are enforcing it.
While state-owned and private buses are off the road, private vehicles, mostly two wheelers are plying. Private cars are also moving in Thiruvananthapuram and other major cities in Kerala.
Ten people in Kannur were arrested after they attacked vehicles that plied before the BJP office.
Even as the two traders' body in the state had announced that they would open their shops, in several places, shops were yet to open.
However, in Kozhikode, traders were determined to open their shops, even as the SKS and BJP activists were protesting.
"This frequent calling of shutdown is not acceptable as we are determined to open the shops and from now on, we will open in future also," said a group of shopkeepers at Kozhikode.
Similarly, in Thevara near Kochi, shops are open.
An incident of stone pelting at an interstate bus from Karnataka was reported from Kozhikode district.
Similar incidents have also been reported from Kasargode, Palakkad and certain other places.
Various university examinations scheduled for Thursday have been postponed and all educational institutions in the state are closed.
Meanwhile, the weekly cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan decided to see that strong action is taken against those who try to create trouble during the shutdown.
At Pandalam in Alappuzha district, angry BJP and Sangh parivar activists took out a protest march, after one of their supporters who was injured in a stone throwing by CPI-M workers, on Wednesday, died late night.
One CPI-M worker has been arrested and the wife of the deceased said the family does not believe that a fair probe will happen.
Earlier report
One person was killed and at least 15 injured in violence across southern India's Kerala state which broke out after two women defied traditionalists to enter one of Hinduism's holiest temples, police said Thursday.
Clashes were reported across the state after the two women activists, escorted by police, entered the Sabarimala temple in a surprise pre-dawn operation on Wednesday.
The Supreme Court in September overturned a decades-old ban on women of menstruating age - deemed as those between 10 and 50 - setting foot inside the gold-plated Sabarimala temple.
Several women activists have made unsuccessful attempts to reach the temple since the order but faced stiff resistance from thousands of devotees including men and women, who see it as an attack on tradition.
"The person who died was part of a BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) demonstration yesterday and got injured when some stones were hurled (at the demonstrators)," Kerala police spokesman Pramod Kumar told AFP.
"His injuries were serious and he died late Wednesday night. At least 15 others were injured in incidents across the state," Kumar added.
Local media reports said the demonstrators from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's BJP were hit by stones from a local office of the state's ruling Communist party.
Kerala remained tense on Thursday, and the police said additional forces had been deployed across the state to prevent further violence breaking out.
The police Wednesday used tear gas, stun grenades and water cannon to control clashes between the rival groups, largely conservatives and cadres of the state's ruling left-wing parties.
Journalists were also assaulted during the disturbances in the state's capital, Thiruvananthapuram, and nearby Kollam city.
In rare comments regarding the Sabarimala temple on Tuesday, Modi - running for a second term in elections later this year - appeared to support the ban, saying the matter was related to tradition.
"There are some temples which have their own traditions, where men can't go. And men don't go," Modi told Indian media.
The Supreme Court is to start hearing a legal challenge on its ruling to allow women into the temple from January 22.
Women are still barred from a handful of Hindu temples in India. The entry of women at Sabarimala was taboo for generations and formalised by the Kerala High Court in 1991.
