NEW DELHI: Hours after the Supreme Court “A Hindu is a Hindu” ruling allowing women access to temples. Trupti Desai was attacked in the presence of police as she along with 50 women,entered the sanctum sanctorum of the Goddess Mahalaxmi temple in Kolhapur.
A gathered mob of right wing groups attacked Desai who has been hospitalised. "The attackers said, 'don't let Trupti Desai get out alive', she told ANI. "There were people who came to attack us; even the priest was abusing us. The doctor said I could have gotten a paralysis attack," she claimed."They pulled our hair, tore my clothes, abused us. I think the attackers planned to kill me, she added.
Desai disregarded the “advice” by the police to wear a sari to the temple, and went in a salwar-kameez instead. She along with the other women was escorted to the inner sanctum when the attack took place. Earlier in the day she had tried to march in procession to the temple as part of a “Vijay rally” as women had been given permission to enter the temple, but was detained by the police. She was instead escorted to the shrine by the police late Wednesday night, but despite the escort she was subjected to a physical attack where she thought at one point that she was going to die.
Desai has been agitating for months now for women’s right to pray at a temple under the banner of her organisation Bhoomata Ranragini Brigade. The 31 year old has won the battle for the right of Hindu women to pray at a temple, starting her journey with a prolonged protest against the temple trust of Shani Shingnapur in Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar district. Through the process she has shattered the prejudicial stereotyping of women, with her sleeveless jackets, short hair and refusal to change as was demonstrated in the latest incident, by conforming to ‘rules’ for women. Desai had repeatedly maintained since, “I am a believer in god, in Lord Shani. Why must I be denied access to the god I believe in? What is this tradition which suggests women are impure.” She has pointed out that she was standing for a change in attitude towards women that “somehow we are lesser mortals than men. I refuse to accept this is what the god desired.”
The courts have supported her in this. But the self styled custodians of religion have not. The Maharashtra High Court had ruled in her favour last week saying that entry into temples was a fundamental right for women. Desai, with 25 women, travelled to the Shani Shingapur temple that had denied entry to women for 400 years, but was stopped with violence. She was not beaten but she was not allowed inside despite an earlier request to state Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to ensure that the temple trust authorities respected the court ruling.
Now this time the violence where she says the intention was to kill her, followed a Supreme Court ruling in favour of women’s entry into temples. "We will now only be guided by the rationale under the Constitution. The gravity of this petition is that gender justice is endangered," a three-judge bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra had said. Other members included V.Gopala Gowda and Kurian Joseph.
"Can you deny a woman her right to climb the Mount Everest? The reasons banning anything must be common for all and on the bedrock of the Constitution," the bench said.
However, given the executive has clearly failed to ensure the implementation of the court’s ruling and this time around Desai was badly beaten. The police excuse is that Desai did not wear a sari as advised.