Activist Trupti Desai is stopped from entering the temple of Lord Shiva by women from nearby villages near Nashik.
Highlights
- Activist Trupti Desai barred from entering temple in Nashik on Shivratri
- Over 100 women joined Desai trying to enter core of Trimbakeshwar Temple
- Desai is fighting the ban on women inside the core of many temples
It's a cause-and-effect routine that has become standard for activist Trupti Desai. This time the Nashik police detained her along with over 100 women.
But not before another high voltage drama where the police barricaded roads in anticipation of her arrival this afternoon at a famous temple town near Nashik in Maharashtra.
"This is not right. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had backed our cause and now he has sent the police after us. Is this Acchhe Din PM Modi promised," she asked as over a dozen women police constables surrounded her at a village 80 km from the temple town of Trimbak.
She was released later in the evening.
Ms Desai wanted to enter the core or inner sanctum of a temple dedicated to Lord Shiva on the occasion of Mahashivratri, one of the most important occasions in the Hindu calendar. Like some other temples, women are not allowed into the inner chambers. Temple priests claim it is not discrimination but done to protect women as the vibrations from some idols are harmful for women.
Last month, Ms Desai was blocked in a similar fashion on the road to the Shani Shingnapur temple in Ahmednagar, dedicated to Lord Shani or Saturn. The locals who formed a human chain to keep the activist and her companions out included several hundred women villagers, who said they wanted to protect a centuries-old tradition that blocks access to women, a decision recently endorsed by the temple's officials.
Ms Desai, who heads an organization called the Bhumata Brigade, had warned that she might grapple into the temple from a helicopter, a prospect that was quickly banned by the police by refusing flying permission to the chopper.
Chief Minister Fadnavis has said that state officials can facilitate talks between the activists and temple authorities.
"Indian culture and the Hindu religion have always given women the right to worship," Mr Fadnavis had tweeted. "A change in tradition in accordance with the times is our culture. Discrimination in worshipping is not our culture," he had posted.
Today, minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said that through discussion a solution can be found.
The popular Sabarimala Ayyappa temple in Kerala, which denies entry to women of reproductive age, is the subject of a petition in the Supreme Court, which has asked temple authorities to explain why they forbid women entry.