In another incident of targeting Hindu temples in Communist-ruled Kerala, a temple has been asked to not use saffron decoration during a festival. Recently, police visited the Vellayani Bhadrakali temple located on the southern outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala and instructed the temple authorities to avoid saffron-coloured buntings, flags other fabric on the premises for the upcoming Mohotsav. According to the police, the temple should use fabrics, flags and buntings of all colours, not just saffron, even though traditionally the temple is decorated with saffron during the festival.
In protest against the police instruction, devotees later set up a tent for a police post for the festival using saffron fabric. The temple authorities also have refused to remove the saffron flags and buntings. The devotees have alleged that the police are helping the anti-Hindu elements in the state.
This enormous Devi temple is situated next to Vellayani Lake, a wetland that draws a significant number of pilgrims during the Kaliyoottu Mahotsavam, which is held once every three years. It is managed by the Travancore Devaswom Board of the Kerala government, and it has a number of committees that are chosen annually by residents of the Kalliyoor panchayat nearby.
The triennial festival is scheduled to start on February 14, 2023, and will be the first one to be held in the last six years. The 2020 festival had to be interrupted due to the Wuhan virus pandemic. However, this year’s enthusiasm and preparations for the festival have also been dampened due to the unnecessary issue that has cropped up from the side of the local government.
According to the reports, the Kerala Police have demanded that the temple’s administrators switch out their customary saffron-coloured buntings (torons), flags and other fabric for multicoloured ones since they worry that lining the temple’s approach road with solely saffron-coloured decorations might cause a law-and-order issue.
The Vellayani Bhadrakali temple authorities are enraged as it is blatantly disrespectful to religious sensibilities to have government officials interfere in a custom that the temple has maintained for centuries. At first, the temple administration thought that the instruction was regarding the ban on plastic flags, and therefore they used cloth buntings and flags. But later they found out that the objection was on the saffron colour.
The saffron buntings had just been raised on the approach road to the temple, according to Sreekand Kalliyoor, a member of the temple’s festival committee, and festival arrangements were moving along with great enthusiasm, when the police showed up in the middle of the morning on January 7 to give their outrageous instructions.
Rageesh Kumar, the Nemom Station House Officer (SHO) and Inspector of Police, made the demand while being escorted by a sizable police force. When the temple officials inquired as to why the saffron flags had to be changed, they were told that the police had received a telephone complaint over the colour of the torons and as a result, wanted them changed to multi-coloured ones to prevent a law-and-order issue.
The complainant’s identity was kept a secret, and the SHO orally gave directions. The representatives of the temple received no written complaint or directive. Reports mention that the police departed after the temple refused to remove the saffron torons.
The following day, on February 8, four senior members of the advisory and festival committees for the Vellayani temple met with Anil Jose J, the Deputy Collector (General) ADM, at Kudappanankkunnu Civil Station, Thiruvananthapuram, for a regularly scheduled meeting in the evening to review the festival’s planning and preparations.
Rageesh Kumar, the Nemom SHO, was present at this meeting. The matter of the SHO asking the temple officials to swap out the saffron flags for multicoloured ones was brought up during this discussion. However, no decision was made in either direction, and the discussion over saffron torons came to a deadlock.
Later, N Gryan, General Convenor of the temple festival committee while in a debate on JanamTV said that when they brought up the issue with Deputy Collector Anil Jose J. that evening, SHO silently mouthed “saffron, saffron, saffron.” Kalliyoor adds that they could not comprehend why a simple saffron bunting would cause so many problems.
Also, AH Hafem of the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) said on the February 8 debate that the saffron colour could cause law and order problems. So, the saffron colour decoratives at the temple now are being opposed by both the local administration and the Communist party functionary.
According to a Swarajya Magazine report, the Vellayani temple has been targeted for a few years now as it is the stronghold of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Vellayani temple lies within the boundary of Nemom assembly and Veteran BJP leader O Rajagopal had polled heavily in this segment in the 2014 general elections. Further, the temple lies in the Kalliyoor panchayat, the area which the BJP attained in the local body polls of 2015 and 2020.
Earlier, the temple was attacked on a similar issue in the year 2017. The temple authorities then had been asked to take down the saffron flag hoisted on the entrance of the temple. The festival committee then didn’t want to engage in an argument so had decided to take down the flag.
