NEW DELHI -- India inched closer to treating men and women as equals, last week, when women defeated a centuries- old ban and offered prayers in the inner sanctum of the Shani Shingnapur temple in Maharashtra. It was by no means a glorious victory. Temple officials were so desperate to keep women out that they even barred the men, and relented only when a mob of men stormed the inner sanctum. But eventually, women got in.
Now, it is time for Sabarimala Ayyappa temple in Kerala to lift its ban on women. In the southern state, religious leaders, who protect the celibate Lord Ayyappa from mensturating women considered to be unclean, have the full backing of the Congress Party-led government.
In Maharashtra, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government never lifted a finger to help women gain entry into the temple, but Chief Minister Davendra Fadnavis at least paid lip service to gender equality. In poll-bound Kerala, the Congress Party government has said it is duty bound to protect the right of devotees to practice their religion which involves the exclusion of women, a tradition continuing from time immemorial.
By that logic, the Congress Party should have also opposed the entry of women into the Shani Shingnapur temple which has excluded the entry of women into its inner sanctum for 400 years. In Maharashtra, however, the Congress Party was all for women's rights.
When the Maharashtra government failed to enforce the Bombay High Court's order for women to enter the Shani temple in Ahmednagar, Congress Party's national spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi said, "The high court verdict has been disregarded to continue tradition which has been going on for years."
"We were hoping that the Maharashtra government which came on the promise of women empowerment and equal rights to women and a chief minister who keeps on talking of equal rights has failed in his duty," she said.
Janardan Dwivedi, Congress Party's General Secretary in Maharashtra, said that it was the "pious duty" of whole society to support lifting the ban. "This is also the responsibility of the government so that reason prevails over those people who are creating hurdles and problems in this direction," he said.
In its affidavit to the Supreme Court, which is hearing a plea challenging the ban on women entering the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple, the Congress Party-led government in Keralasaid, "the right to exclude persons who are not allowed to participate in worship according to the tenets of the religious institution in question is a matter of religion," which is "immune" from challenge under Article 14 (right to equality).
What makes the Congress Party's regressive stand doubly appalling is that it is driven by political opportunism.
Just a few months before the scheduled election, the Congress Party-led United Democratic Front (UDF) reversed the stand which the Left Democratic Front government had taken before the Supreme Court, opposing Sabarimala's ban on menstruating women
Congress Party Vice President Rahul Gandhi has routinely tried to cast his party as more enlightened and progressive than the right-wing BJP and the Modi government. Just this week, Gandhi said that his party would "continue to strengthen the voice of Dalits, tribals, women and poor.”
Could Gandhi say how the Congress Party's stand on the Sabarimala Ayyappa is strengthening the cause for women?
Also on HuffPost India:
Now, it is time for Sabarimala Ayyappa temple in Kerala to lift its ban on women. In the southern state, religious leaders, who protect the celibate Lord Ayyappa from mensturating women considered to be unclean, have the full backing of the Congress Party-led government.
In Maharashtra, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government never lifted a finger to help women gain entry into the temple, but Chief Minister Davendra Fadnavis at least paid lip service to gender equality. In poll-bound Kerala, the Congress Party government has said it is duty bound to protect the right of devotees to practice their religion which involves the exclusion of women, a tradition continuing from time immemorial.
By that logic, the Congress Party should have also opposed the entry of women into the Shani Shingnapur temple which has excluded the entry of women into its inner sanctum for 400 years. In Maharashtra, however, the Congress Party was all for women's rights.
When the Maharashtra government failed to enforce the Bombay High Court's order for women to enter the Shani temple in Ahmednagar, Congress Party's national spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi said, "The high court verdict has been disregarded to continue tradition which has been going on for years."
"We were hoping that the Maharashtra government which came on the promise of women empowerment and equal rights to women and a chief minister who keeps on talking of equal rights has failed in his duty," she said.
Janardan Dwivedi, Congress Party's General Secretary in Maharashtra, said that it was the "pious duty" of whole society to support lifting the ban. "This is also the responsibility of the government so that reason prevails over those people who are creating hurdles and problems in this direction," he said.
In its affidavit to the Supreme Court, which is hearing a plea challenging the ban on women entering the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple, the Congress Party-led government in Keralasaid, "the right to exclude persons who are not allowed to participate in worship according to the tenets of the religious institution in question is a matter of religion," which is "immune" from challenge under Article 14 (right to equality).
What makes the Congress Party's regressive stand doubly appalling is that it is driven by political opportunism.
Just a few months before the scheduled election, the Congress Party-led United Democratic Front (UDF) reversed the stand which the Left Democratic Front government had taken before the Supreme Court, opposing Sabarimala's ban on menstruating women
Congress Party Vice President Rahul Gandhi has routinely tried to cast his party as more enlightened and progressive than the right-wing BJP and the Modi government. Just this week, Gandhi said that his party would "continue to strengthen the voice of Dalits, tribals, women and poor.”
Could Gandhi say how the Congress Party's stand on the Sabarimala Ayyappa is strengthening the cause for women?
Also on HuffPost India: