Thiruvananthapuram: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPM] has asserted that the party still supported women’s entry at the Lord Ayyappa Temple at Sabarimala in Kerala's Pathanamthitta district.
The central committee said the party opposed the move to leave the landmark Supreme Court verdict of 2018 to a larger bench. The party stance on the issue was recorded in the political report, which was tabled during the central committee meet held in Thiruvananthapuram last month.
The CPM has published the report on its website.
A five-bench Constitution bench of the Supreme Court had in September 2018 allowed women of all groups to enter the Sabarimala temple. However, Kerala witnessed widespread protests after women attempted to enter the hill shrine and several review petitions were filed against the SC order.
After the Supreme Court decided to review the 2018 judgment, there were reports that the CPM-led government and the party had backtracked from their earlier stance on the issue.
Some ministers had also welcomed the new court verdict. The central committee report said that the party did not approve of such reactions, including those made by the Devaswom and Law Ministers.
The central committee pointed out that the Supreme Court should have rejected the review petitions against the 2018 order.
"Instead the court decided to consider these along with other issues linked to women's religious freedom. This decision of the larger bench does not help in upholding the 2018 verdict. The CPM remains steadfast on its stance for gender equality in all sectors," the report said.
The central committee further said that the party hoped that the Supreme Court would give a clear and final decision on the issue at the earliest. The state unit of the CPM and the Pinarayi government had backtracked from its hardline stand on implementing the Sabarimala verdict after its candidates were trounced in 19 of the 20 Lok Sabha seats.
This had created confusion among the ranks and prompted a soft-pedalling by both the party and the government on the issue of women's entry into the Lord Ayyappa shrine.
The CPM-led LDF managed to put up a better performance in the subsequent by-polls to five assembly segments, wresting Vatiyoorkavu and Konni seats from the Congress-led United Democratic Front.
