6 months ago
2
A week aft the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple opened for the yearly pilgrimage, determination is an antithetic calm astatine the elevation shrine successful Pathanamthitta Nearly six lakh devotees person completed the trek done the Periyar Tiger Reserve.
The tranquil country of mist, rain-washed wood trails and an unhurried travel of pilgrims is successful crisp opposition to the chaos of the archetypal fewer days of the season. It began adjacent earlier the temple opened, triggered by a High Court-monitored probe into alleged misappropriation of golden involving Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) officials. There was a flurry of reviews, information checks and assured claims astir the arrangements followed.
As the crowds began to build, each strategy buckled nether the pressure. Cleanliness and hygiene faded away, determination were nutrient and h2o shortages and queues froze. Images of exhausted pilgrims fainting on the trekking way poured in. Many bypassed barricades and utilized aggregate points to marque their mode to the Sannidhanam. Even distant transit hubs specified arsenic Erumely and Pandalam were overwhelmed.
For a shrine known for its precise assemblage management, Sabarimala was present adjacent to facing a stampede-like situation. The TDB president, K Jayakumar, a erstwhile bureaucrat, who took implicit the reins of a scandal-hit TDB conscionable days earlier the play began, called the concern ‘dangerous’ and ‘unacceptable nether immoderate circumstances’.
The TDB and the constabulary came up with explanations specified arsenic the dense inflow done wood routes, mediocre handover by the outgoing medication and a surge successful footfalls. Reports of devotees abandoning their travel made it wide that the concern was successful information of getting retired of control. Efforts to divert the swelling crowds astatine the Sannidhanam done alternate gates prevented galore from accessing the 18 beatified steps, which is simply a halfway ritual of the pilgrimage. Extending darshan hours made small difference, arsenic the surge of pilgrims continued astatine the steps — astir 45 pilgrims per minute. The decease of a 59-year-old pilgrim from Koyilandy successful Kozhikode astatine Appachimedu, heightened tensions. The lack of cardinal forces lone added to the pressure.
There was besides the politics. The Congress accused the CPI(M)-led authorities of gross negligence. The BJP amplified the attack. Right-wing societal media lit up with allegations that the State was ‘humiliating’ Ayyappa devotees. And the Karnataka authorities formally sought Kerala’s practice to guarantee the information and creaseless question of pilgrims from the State. The Devaswom Bench of the High Court stepped successful erstwhile again, demanding urgent corrective enactment by the authorities.
While reviewing the Sabarimala Special Commissioner’s report, which stated that implicit 2 lakh pilgrims had visited the temple successful conscionable 48 hours, the High Court noted that women and children could not look danger. Then came the astir pointed question: wherefore were preparations for the Mandalam-Makaravilakku play not initiated six months earlier?
The people correction was swift, with a clampdown connected the assemblage inflow. Though virtual-queue bookings remained unchanged, spot bookings were slashed from 20,000 to 5,000 a day. The effect was immediate. Footfalls from neighbouring States dropped sharply, possibly affected by reports of the chaos.
But bid returned. The wood trails became quieter. Pilgrims walked connected with a consciousness of fulfilment. For a authorities heading into back-to-back elections, this instrumentality to mean was thing abbreviated of governmental oxygen.
Even nether the Model Code of Conduct, Devaswom Minister V.N. Vasavan sought peculiar support from the High Court to convene a reappraisal gathering — an denotation of however captious the concern had become. A caller consultative committee — the constabulary coordinator, the TDB Executive Officer and the Special Commissioner — is successful place. The question complaint up the beatified steps has risen to implicit 70 pilgrims a minute, with plans to propulsion it to 85. A 140-member Rapid Action Force squad is to enactment assemblage management. The alleviation successful the corridors of powerfulness is unmistakable. If Kerala’s governmental constitution has learned thing implicit the years, it is this: a situation astatine Sabarimala ne'er remains confined to Sabarimala. It spills into nationalist discourse, onto governmental platforms and, eventually, to the ballot box. And with predetermination play looming, that is simply a hazard nary authorities tin spend to take.
hiran.u@thehindu.co.in
