Women journalists attacked in Sabarimala despite police presence

Two women journalists were attacked by an angry mob in Kerala’s Sabarimala while on their way to report protests on Wednesday, in what seems to be yet another instance of the police’s failure to handle right-wing protestors as tensions simmer around the controversial shrine.

The temple opened for the first time for women between the age of 10 and 50 on Wednesday, turning over the age-old custom of not admitting them based on a 28 September Supreme Court verdict.

Pooja Prasanna from television channel ‘Republic TV’ and Saritha S Balan from the website ‘The Newsminute’ were reportedly attacked by a mob of hundreds while on their way to report the protests from Pamba, a base camp 5 km from the hilltop temple that is now crowded by thousands of right-wing protestors. The attacks were despite heavy police presence, the journalists said.

A mob surrounded Prasanna’s car, “shoving their faces into every window and the windshield, shouting loudly, making intimidatory gestures, and then, slamming the car from all sides”, reported the website of Republic TV on Wednesday.

“I kept saying I am a journalist. It is very clear that I was not a devotee from my attire. I was wearing jeans, not a saree. But none in the crowd was ready to listen to me. At least 200 people followed me and started hurling abuses. I haven’t ever been subjected to such a situation in my entire career,” she said in a video message to the website.

“A man kicked her on the back and a woman threatened to assault her. Prasanna’s tablet was stolen. Why did the Kerala police not anticipate such a protest,” asked the website’s



editor-in-chief Dhanya Rajendran in a video put out by the website.

Earlier, Madhavi, 40, a devotee from Andhra Pradesh, tried to enter Sabarimala temple on Wednesday but had to drop her plans and return after protestors heckled and attacked her, according to local reports.

In the morning, another woman devotee, Leby, was reportedly stopped from entering Pamba at Pathanamthitta town, some 40 km away. On Tuesday night, another woman devotee from Tamil Nadu, Panchami, was forcibly taken off a bus to Pamba by the protestors. She was physically dragged to sit with them on a dharna, before the police came to her rescue, television reports showed.

Charged by a freshly formed pro-Hindu organization ‘Acharya Samrakshna Samithi’ (Organisation to Protect Rituals), thousands of protestors have laid siege to Pamba and Nilakkal, the base camps for the hilltop shrine, respectively, 5 km and 20 km away, over the last 24 hours. The Sangh Parivar organisations, along with Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress, are also protesting at the two sites.

The scenes are in stark contrast to assurances by the state government. “No one will be stopped from going to Sabarimala,” Kerala’s police chief Loknath Behra told television reporters on Wednesday. Over 1,000 additional police personnel were positioned in Pamba and Nilakkal, he said.

On Wednesday morning, the police had beefed up security and taken strong action against protestors stopping vehicles. About 16 people were taken into custody for attacking protestors on Wednesday, and a protest venue was removed from Pamba. However, the protestors reconstructed the venue, according to local reports.