With the Sabarimala issue raging on after the Supreme Court lifted the ban on women between 10 and 50 years of age from entering the Lord Ayyappa temple in Kerala, Union Minister of Textiles Smriti Irani has courted fresh controversy over her remarks on menstruating women.
“I'm nobody to speak on the Supreme Court verdict as I'm a current serving Cabinet minister. But just plain common sense—would you take (a) sanitary napkin steeped in menstrual blood and walk into a friend's home? You would not. And would you do the same when you walk into the house of God? So, that's the difference. I have the right to pray but not to desecrate. That's my personal opinion,” said Smriti Irani during an interaction at the Young Thinkers’ Conference organised by the British Deputy High Commission and the Observer Research Foundation in Mumbai on Tuesday.
Irani even narrated an incident from her own life to explain her stance on the Sabarimala issue. It is no secret that Irani, a Hindu, is married to a Parsi. “I have ensured that both my kids are practising Zoroastrians, who can go to the fire temple and pray. Both of them have done their Navjote. Once, I took my new-born son to a fire temple in Andheri. But I had to give him at the temple gate to my husband because I was shooed away and told ‘yaha mat khade rahna' (don't stand here),” she said. “Often, I stand on the road or sit inside a car. And that's the difference that we need to recognise and respect.”
This is the first time a Union minister or someone from the ruling BJP, with the exception of Maneka Gandhi, has made a comment on the Sabarimala verdict. The Supreme Court had lifted the ban on entry of women in the menstrual age group to the Sabarimala temple on September 28. This had led to massive protests from various Hindu outfits with devotees even going to the extend of blocking women from entering the famous Ayyappa shrine in Kerala.
Earlier, speaking to THE WEEK, Union Minister Maneka Gandhi had said the Centre had no plans to bring an ordinance on Sabarimala. “Why should the Union government bring an ordinance? It is already a court decision, isn't it? Yes, I had welcomed the judgment. I don't want to say anything more at this stage,” Maneka said.
While the central leadership of the BJP has been largely silent about Sabarimala issue, the leaders from the party in Kerala have vehemently opposed the Supreme Court verdict and were at the forefront of leading the agitation.
