ANS workers trying to storm shrine held

Tension had been mounting in the district ever since the ANS declared its intent to storm the temple (devoted to Lord Shani, that is Saturn) with its women activists. The Bajrang Dal today assembled over 500 of its own activists to counter any ANS move, among them 150 women belonging to Durga Vahini, Bajrang Dal’s women’s wing. The Dal had also declared a bandh in the area today to protest the ANS move. Interestingly, a banner erected by the temple’s trustees said “nobody will be allowed to go in for worship today as the floor tiles are being replaced.”

Police had clamped Section 144 (ban on assembly) in the temple area, but the ANS workers were arrested when they assembled this morning at Wadia Park in Ahmednagar township itself, 35 kms from the shrine. They were refused bail by the local court and remanded to judicial custody for a day.

Before he was held, Dr Dabholkar told Newsline, “We feel God should be kept out of the divisions of humanity on the basis of caste, class and gender.” Bhave said: “By trying to resist women from entering the temple the Sangh Privar is exposing its real face.”

Even as this drama unfolded in Ahmedanagar, Bajrangis, temple trustees and villagers from Shani-Shingnapur converged at the local school, and the crowd waiting to counter the ANS rose to 3,500. Anticipating trouble, police sealed off the main routes leading to the shrine after 11.00 am. However, by then some fiery speeches had been made outside the temple gate.

Bajrang Dal convenor Deepak Gaikwad questioned the locus standi of the ANS in standing up for all women. “These Communists are all atheists and don’t have any respect for God. But does that give them the right to take away the sacred feelings others have about God?” Asked about the Bajrang Dal’s locus standi, he defended: “We came on invitation from locals who find their traditions and relgion threatened.” According to him, if the ANS was so keen on ending discrimination, it should start with other religions where women are not allowed to enter places of worship.

He said there is a long tradition of certain rites and religious places in Hinduism being reserved for either gender. “For example women are not allowed into the Sabarimalai sanctum in Kerala, and men don’t go and worhsip the banyan on Vata Purnima,” he said but added, “We won’t mind if one of our progressive-minded Shankaracharyas suggested women should be allowed into this sanctum sanctorum, but coming from ANS, it’s blasphemous.”

He also felt the ANS was part of a larger intenrational conspiracy against Hinduism. According to Digmabar Joshi, a senior priest of the temple, “Gods like Hanuman and Shani from the Hindu pantheon are supposed to be celibates, hence women are advised not to enter these temples.”

Sena MLA from Ahmednagar Anil Rathore, who defied police’s prohibitory orders, led a group of Sainiks inside the temple and refused to move without finishing his rosary of 108 beads, was arrested the moment he stepped out of the shrine. Local MP Chandrakant Khaire (Sena) too courted arrest, but a rumour that some ANS women activists had sneaked in with his retinue led the Durga Vahini district convenor Asha Jagtap to charge with five women into the temple. When police chased the Vahini workers and allegedly hit them, the assembled crowd got into a frenzy and tried to storm the temple. However, Khaire, Rathore, district collector Vimlendra Sharan and police commissioner Himanshu Roy succeeded in controlling the crowd.