Kerala Govt Withdraws Police Handbook for Sabarimala After Protests

Following protests, the Kerala government has withdrawn a police handbook which said pilgrims of all ages are allowed to enter the temple as per a 2018 Supreme Court order. However, the entry of girls and women of menstruating age are not allowed inside the Sabarimala Hill shrine. 

Earlier a huge controversy erupted after a directive in the police handbook distributed among the police personnel on duty at the Ayyappa temple as it permitted entry to all. As the directive was protested by various quarters, Kerala Devasom minister K Radhakrishnan said the directive will be withdrawn as old handbooks were distributed mistakenly. 

The minister also clarified that the State Government has no ill-motive as alleged by the BJP. Later, the state police said it was an unintentional error. The Additional DGP MR AJit Kumar said the police deployed at Sabarimala have been directed to continue with the existing system. He said some of the content was copied from the old handbook without verification and this led to the confusion over the directives given to the police personnel. 

As the new handbook came into the public domain, the BJP warned the government of a series of protests as in 2018. The Kerala unit of BJP the directive was aimed at violating customs and rituals of the centuries’ old temple. 

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