RSS on Sabarimala row: Mohan Bhagwat says Supreme Court didn't consider sentiments of Hindus in its 28 September verdict

Prayagraj: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat on Thursday said the Supreme Court had not considered the emotions of crores of the country’s Hindus when it allowed, in September 2018, for all women to worship at the Sabrimala Temple. Addressing the Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s Dharma Sansad that began in Prayagraj on Thursday, Bhagwat said," Uski apni parampara rehti hai, lekin desh bhar ke croron Hinduon ki bhawanao ka samman isse aahaat hoga, yeh vichar court ne kiya nahi (It has its own tradition, but the court did not think about the hurt it has caused to the sentiments of crores of Hindus)." The RSS leader, who spoke in Hindi, also hit out at the Kerala government and blamed it for “facilitating the entry of women through the back door.” [caption id=“attachment_5221431” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat. PTI[/caption] “Court had stated that if a woman demands entry they must be allowed to do so and if they are stopped they must be provided protection to enter from the route from where all others devotees enter to worship. But now when no woman wants to go, they brought women from Sri Lanka and facilitated their entry through the back door. If you had to do it legally do it from the front door, but they aren’t even doing that,” Bhagwat said. The RSS has been a staunch opponent of the Supreme Court September 2018 ruling, which had overturned a decades-long ban on the entry of women between the ages of 10 and 50 years into the Sabarimala temple, citing that the ruling violated the customs and traditions of the temple. Bhagwat alleged that the Supreme Court ruling was a hurried one without considering God as a legal entity. “Women are saying that they are ready to wait. This is a question of traditions of a particular temple and is protected by our constitution. But why has such a decision taken in a hurry?” he said. “Upon reading the verdict we find that it also says ‘God is not a legal entity and that since the temple is a public place, all decisions can be implemented there.’ It is right that religious places belonging to all religions can be open to all for worship but you cannot say that is a public place, but rather a place of a particular community which has its own traditions and discipline,” Bhagwat said. RSS chief also opined that the decision by the apex court failed to yield the desired result and instead resulted in a conflict. “The court did not ponder over the fact that emotions of crores of Hindu’s will be hurt by this decision. We believe that the court gives thought to make all things right in the country but when they tried to do the same there (in Sabrimala) it instead started a conflict. This shows that the expected result did not come by this decision,” Bhagwat said in his speech. The statement by the RSS chief comes hours after Kerala finance minister Thomas Isaac described the violence over the entry into Sabarimala Temple as the “second disaster” following the devastating floods in the state, during his presentation of the state budget in the Assembly.