By Aditya Aamir

Travancore Devaswom Board-initiated talks to arrive at a consensus failed Tuesday. BJP was not part of the talks but its shadow looms large. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan says Supreme Court order will be implemented come what may. Ayyappa devotees say they will not allow ‘fertile women’ anywhere near the shrine come what may! The BJP’s 24-hour time given for LDF government to sort out the issue expired on October 16. What will BJP do?

The Bharatiya Janata Party is dealing from a curiously stacked deck of cards to the Malayali Ayyappan. The party’s state unit’s long march to prevent the “yuvati-invasion” of Sabarimala is at odds with the national BJP/RSS’s road to perdition, attempt to impose Hindu monotheism on India by denying diversity in religious practices within the Hindu fold.

Haji Ali was a red-herring and Shani Shingnapur a test case. Sabarimala, but for devotee-rebellion, would have been incubatory to nurse an Abrahamic version of Hinduism. Willy-nilly, the Pinarayi Vijayan government has become a Modi- aide, but the LDF wants nothing to do with Ayyappan or Hinduism. The state government cannot go for a review petition of the SC verdict because of its consistent support during the hearings for gender justice and equal rights to women. Ditto Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Travancore Devaswom Board of the “atheist communist government” can only do so much and not more. But it’s the BJP’s behaviour which is perplexing. Ayyappa bhakt in Kerala and Hindu diversity-virodhi in the Rest of India. What has empowered the Kerala state unit of the BJP to stake out a position of power? The silent majority rising up in opposition to Supreme Court’s verdict has changed perceptions. BJP and RSS welcomed the verdict but flipped when the tide of Ayyappa devotees clogged streets.

Now, we’ve the strange spectacle of the BJP at odds with itself, toeing one line in Kerala and sticking to another in all the other states – opposed to the Supreme Court’s verdict in the state and whole-heartedly endorsing the court’s order at the Centre.

A new strain of divide and rule!

Outside Kerala, the saffron party hails the gender-justice verdict but in Ayyappa-country, the forked-tongue bends to “anti-woman traditions and customs of kshetrams (temple-spaces).” This, as the saffron party continues to be called out for proclaiming that it’s the sole custodian of Hinduism.

Who is to blame? The Congress because it permitted the BJP to steal a march over it and, apprehensive of triggering violence, held back from challenging the BJP in the streets and on the road. While opposing the apex court verdict right from word go, the Congress’s state unit had no desire to be clubbed with the BJP if the protests escalated into violence.

The rival CPM is waiting for the Congress to make a misstep. But the Congress supporter/voter is not ‘visible’ in the sea of Ayyappa devotees and the Congress-flag remains out of sight. The undercurrent of tension between the LDF and the UDF is palpable but neither party is as belligerent as the BJP.

In Ayyappa-land a verdict such as the one delivered on September 28 is pregnant with possibilities. That the ‘yuvati-devotees’ outnumber the male ‘Ayyappa bhakta’ is the icing on the cake. Add Rahul Easwar’s Ayyappa Dharma Sena to the “ready to wait” and it is a potent cocktail.

It will do immense good to everybody if a consensus is worked out. If not there can be “upheaval” nobody wants. The feeling is the supremacy of the top court should not be contested. The top court is in recess till October 22. That gives time to sort things out.

That still doesn’t explain the BJP/RSS/Hindutva double-game. A study of Republic TV behaviour might explain. The channel’s programming apes the BJP playbook and this week itself its “face” anchored three “Ayyappa Specials”, which were nothing but Ayyappa and Ayyappa-devotee bashing diatribes. While toeing the BJP’s line at the Centre, the channel went all out against the state unit’s “madness.”

Near-total ignorance notwithstanding, the channel head has been “educating” Malayali Ayyappa devotees and shouting for “immediate arrests” and “call in the army!” Female devotees, steeped in Ayyappa lore and temple-mores, were called “ignorant people” and engaged in debates with women who claimed they were “ready-to-wait” but were “in reality Trojans!”

The anchor, like the all Sangh Parivaar outfits, is on a mission to unify Hindus, bring order to the chaos that sets Hinduism apart from Abrahamic religions. Not for him “kshetrams” and their diversity, the 36 million gods. Sabarimala is the laboratory to test and incubate monotheistic Hinduism, ergo mould Hindus into a single whole, devoted to a particular ideology.

Conspiracy theory? Of course, not. Join the dots and the picture rises in relief. BJP/RSS welcomed the Supreme Court verdict because it was fine by them and in line with their goal. But they did not expect the orderly and seemingly meek Malayali to rebel. The ‘Save Ayyappa’ campaign is as much a ‘Save Kerala’ mission. Sabarimala cannot be turned into a maternity home for Hindutva. Gender equality is fine but not at the expense of killing a God, that too in God’s Own Country!  (IPA Service)

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