Need to protect traditions, beliefs of Hindus: RSS

The Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) on Sunday urged Ayyappa devotees in Kerala to continue their struggle to save the Sabarimala temple traditions and sought the country's support in protecting the beliefs of the Hindu society.

At a three-day meet of its highest policy-making body the Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha (ABPS) here, the RSS adopted a resolution saying there had been a "systematic design" by "vested interests" based on "a non-Bhartiya perspective" to insult and hurt Hindu beliefs and traditions.

"The Sabarimala temple case is a recent example of this design. Hindutva is not a monolithic thought but a view of life manifested in diverse and varied ways of cultural expressions, characterised by uniqueness in modes of worship, local traditions and festivities. It is anomalous to impose monotonous homogenisation on the beauty of diversity in our traditions," the resolution said.

The ABPS urged the devotees to continue their struggle to protect the temple traditions with restraint and sobriety.

"The Pratinidhi Sabha urges the Kerala government to honour the beliefs, sentiments and democratic rights of the devotees and not perpetrate violence upon its own people. The Pratinidhi Sabha hopes that the Court will comprehensively consider all these concerns in the review and other petitions," the resolution said.

The RSS body accused Kerala's Left Front government of trampling upon Hindu sentiments under the pretext of implementing the Supreme Court verdict to allow women of all ages to enter the Sabarimala temple.

"It is unfortunate that the Supreme Court while reaching the decision did not take into consideration the nature and premise of the tradition that has been accepted and continuously followed by people for many years.

"The version of heads of religious traditions was not taken into account and the sentiments of women devotees were also not heeded," it said.

The RSS said the Left government's attempts to sneak in "atheist, ultra-Left women activists" from the backdoor had hurt the sentiments of Ayyappa devotees.

"This is being done to further the Communist Party of India-Marxist's (CPI-M) petty political gains and opens another ideological battle against the Hindus," the resolution read.

--IANS

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