Sabarimala women's entry a CPI(M) conspiracy, says brother of Kanakadurga

Bharatbhushan, brother of Kanakadurga who entered the Sabarimala shrine along with another woman on Wednesday, has alleged a conspiracy behind the whole incidents. He also said the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Kottayam Superintendent of Police S. Harishankar were behind the conspiracy, according to Manorama News.

Kanagadurga and Bindu, both aged below 50, reached Sannidhanam with police protection in the early morning hours on Wednesday to become the first women to set foot in the temple after a recent Supreme Court verdict struck down the custom of barring women of menstrual age from entering the hill shrine.

Bharatbhushan said the CPI(M) leaders had contacted them multiple times over phone and that he has the recordings of those phone calls. “We can't approve of it. Though we are a communist family, we follow rituals and traditions,” he said.

The state witnessed widespread protests by the activists of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Sabarimala Karma Samithi soon after the reports of the women's entry emerged. The Sabarimala Karma Samiti has called for a dawn-to-dusk hartal in Kerala on Thursday

Kanakadurga, a native of Angadippuram in Malappuram district, and Bindu, who hails from Kozhikode, had reached Pamba on December 24 to trek the hill. However, they were forced to return midway after fierce protests from devotees.

Since then, the two women were made to stay in a secret location by the police.

Kanakadurga's husband had said he was unaware of his wife's plan to go to Sabarimala. He said Kanakadurga left home in the pretext of going to Thiruvananthapuram for job related purposes.