OUR CONSTITUTIONAL FAULTLINES

P M Ravindran, E mail: raviforjustice@gmail.com

Commenting on my own article ‘Nero fiddled while Rome burnt’, published on 4 th

November 2018 at http://www.vijayvaani.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?aid=4849, I had written
‘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 has been reports of protests from devotees even in far
away Australia, Canada and the US of A.’

The events that followed the opening of the hill shrine for 5 days from the evening of 17th
November, for one day on 5th November and the annual pilgrimage season, extending till
mid January 2019, on 17 November has now exposed what a farce of a democracy have
been gifted to us through a Constitution, which has been rightly criticized as a plagiarized
version of the Government of India Act, 1935, enacted by the colonial rulers to grant limited
self governance for the locals.

The Chief Minister of Kerala, a Marx follower, is now being referred to as Kerala Stalin with
adequate justification. The way he has neglected the flood victims, a significant number of
whom are still in relief camps, even after 3 months of the flood, his foreign jaunts for almost
a month during this period, his failure to implement apex court orders in many cases, from
implementing a minimum pay for nurses to handing over a church from one denomination
to another, his effort to circumvent the apex court orders on banning admission to two
medical colleges by issuing an ordinance, failure to investigate a party MLA accused as a
molester by a woman victim of his own party…the list is long and enough to question his
intentions when he has concentrated his efforts to ensure a woman of objectionable age (as
per the devotees) is taken to Sabarimala.

The gross error in the majority judgment of the apex court has already been explained in
detail in my article quoted earlier. What was left unsaid was that even before the temple
opened for the first time after the verdict, in Oct, there had been filed two review petitions-
one by the Nair Service Society through its advocate, K Parasaran on 8 th October and
another by All Kerala Brahmins Association through Adv Sanand Ramakrishnan on 13 th
October 2018. The court decided to take up these petitions only on 13th November 2018,
just three days before the annual pilgrimage season was to start. And on that day, after
hearing the parties in the Chamber, it was decided to hear the petitions, now almost 50 in
number, only on 22 January 2019, after the temple closes at the end of the season. To add
insult to injury the court made it clear that there was no stay on the original order.

Whatever has happened during the periods when the temple had opened will forever
remain a blotch on any democratic government, even if it is a Marxist Party led one. It
appears that the Pinarayi Vijayan led government is at war with the majority of its citizens,
particularly the devotees of Lord Ayyappa. Forget about repairing the assets damaged by
the floods, even the available facilities, including drinking water and toilets, were denied to
the devotees reaching the shrine after long journeys and an arduous trek through forest
track in a mountainous terrain. The dormitory accommodation available in the temple
premises were also denied to the devotees. It was an agonizing and outrageous sight to see
children sleeping near garbage bins, out of sheer exhaustion.

Immediately after the temple closed on 6th November, a video clip went viral on social
media of the young District Collector of Patthanamthitta, P B Nooh, under whose
jurisdiction Sabarimala is situated, ticking off the staff of the Tranvancore Devaswam Board
for the lack of maintenance of the available facilities and unpreparedness for the
forthcoming season that was just round the corner. But as current reports suggest, nothing
had been done after that.

Leaders of groups who were I the forefront of peaceful protests earlier but were now on the
way to the temple as normal devotees have been arrested. While Sasikala teacher, State
president of Viswa Hindu Parishad, was let off by the Court of the RDO, K Surendran,
General Secretary of State BJP, has been remanded to 14 days in custody. It is as if the Chief
Minister is directly, and only, supervising the Police Raj at Sabarimala. The efforts to gag the
media were foiled by just one channel, Janam TV, approaching the High Court of Kerala and
getting orders forbidding government interference in media covering the events in and
around Sabarimala.

Ever since the demolition of Babari Masjid there have been threats to both the temples at
Guruvayur and Sabarimala, especially on the anniversaries of the event on 6 th December.
And now with the apex court order permitting women of the age group 10 to 50 to visit the
shrine and the public protest against it, Pinarayi Vijayan is on strong wicket as far as the
deployment of the large number of police personnel is concerned. But as it happens usually,
it is always a question of misuse of powers for devious purposes that have been the bane of
law enforcement in this country. While devotees are harassed in every possible way,
including the denial of the right to perform the most cherished ritual of anointing the idol
with the ghee brought by them filled in coconuts, the police have reportedly ordered even
the insufficient food stalls to shut down after the temple hours. On the flip side they
themselves have been ordered to wear their shoes, belt, caps etc as per regulations (which
had not been there earlier). Silly as it may seem, they have also been ordered not to address
the devotees as Swamy or Malikappuram, which are the traditional forms of addressing the
devotees once they begin their vrat till they return after offering their prayers at the temple.

Central intelligence agencies have reportedly indicted the State Government. Central
ministers are expected to visit the shrine soon to study the ground realities personally. But
how effectively they will be able to intervene remains to be seen. The fact that the apex
court could issue such a blatantly unconstitutional order (yes, I repeat, it is blatantly
unconstitutional as it violates the fundamental right to religion as enunciated in Article 26 of
the Constitution and has not abrogated Article 25(2)(b) which is applicable to only Hindu
institutions and thus violative of the much touted right to equality.) an elected Chief
Minister could strive to drive the citizens of his state into near revolt cannot be dismissed
easily without recognizing the faultlines of our Constitution and the lack of the much
needed checks and balances.

18 Nov 2018