To Shri Pinarayi Vijayan
Chief Minister of Kerala Sir, Adv. Bindu and Kanakadurga made history on January 2, 2019 by entering the Sabarimala temple , a right accorded to them, by the historic Supreme Court verdict given on 28 September 2018. This day will also go down as a dark day in the history of India when the Tantris and Melshanthi (headpriest) of the Sabarimala temple conducted a 'purifying puja'. In the historic judgment Justice D.Y Chandrachud observed that the practice to ban entry to women between the ages of ten and fifty at the Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala is "a form of untouchability". He observed "Religion cannot be cover to deny women the right to worship......To treat women as children of a lesser god is to blink at constitutional morality." Justice Chandrachud also said that "exclusion of women is a violation of right to liberty, dignity and equality..... Exclusion of women because she menstruates is utterly unconstitutional." Article 17 of Constitution of India says that "Untouchability is abolished and its practice in any form is forbidden. The enforcement of any disability arising out of Untouchability shall be an offence punishable in accordance with law." It is clear that the purification ceremony performed at Sabarimala is unconstitutional and violates the Supreme Court judgment. Therefore we demand that the Tantris and Melashanthi of Sabarimala should be dismissed from their position as their action is against constitutional morality. Since this purification ceremony happened according to the values of Brahmanical patriarchy we also demand that the Brahmin Tantris should be debarred from their hereditary rights over Sabarimala temple and the worship rights at Sabarimala be given back to Adivasi Mala Araya community who were the customary custodians of Sabarimala until the Brahmins took control of the Sabarimala temple in the early 20th Century. We also demand that the Tantri status should be abolished and the Melshanthi should be a person from Mala Araya community. We appeal to make necessary steps to enforce community rights and facilitate environmental protection of the forests around Sabarimala as well as Pampa river as per the Forest Rights Act. Signatories Signatures can be sent to K.P Sasi *[email protected]* <[email protected]> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
