No 'hidden agenda' of state over women's entry issue: Ker Govt to HC

The Kerala government on Tuesday told the high court there was no "hidden agenda" of the state or police in the "pilgrimage of two women devotees" to Sabarimala on January 2 and alleged that a prominent political party and its supporters were implementing their "political agenda of denying right to women of all age groups to enter" the Lord Ayyappa temple.

The state government stated this in an affidavit filed by it after a division bench of justices P R Ramachandra Menon and N Anil Kumar had on January 8 sought to know whether the two women of reproductive age, who had entered the shrine on January 2, had any "hidden agenda."
The government said the allegations regarding its "hidden agenda" were "perpetrated by right wing elements to perpetuate their political ends and the same is not supported by any cogent reason or bonafide apprehension."
The government submitted that a prominent political party and its supporters and right wing elements have a "political agenda" of denying the right of women of all ages to enter Sabarimala temple "by taking recourse to all sorts of illegal methods and criminal acts to prevent the entry of such women into the temple."