Sabarimala Temple: BJP to send delegation to asses atrocities committed on protesters

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday said that a delegation will be sent to Kerala's Sabarimala Temple to take firsthand account of agitation and to assess atrocities being committed on Satyagrahis.

The delegation will have Saroj Pandey, Prahlad Joshi, Vinod Sonkar and NK Kateel, news agency ANI reported. 

A report will be submitted after taking the firsthand account and will be submitted within 15 days to BJP president Amit Shah. 

Earlier on November 23, BJP observed a dawn-to-dusk bandh to condemn the "disrespectful" behaviour of police towards Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan while he was en route to Sabarimala. Most shops remained closed.

BJP workers shouted slogans against the Kerala government and its police.

They also blocked some Kerala State Transport Corporation Buses for sometime before police persuaded them to disperse.

At Gudalur in Theni district, some BJP workers blocked a KSRTC bus for an hour before police intervened.

On November 21, BJP state president P S Sreedharan Pillai alleged that the ruling CPI(M) was using police to "crush" the party and sangh parivar workers who, he said, were staging a "Gandhian model" of protest against the government's "hasty move" to implement the Supreme Court verdict permitting the entry of women of all age groups into the hill shrine.

He alleged that the devotees were being unnecessarily targeted by the police at Sabarimala.

Restrictions have been imposed at the shrine following protests by devotees and activists of the BJP and the RSS over the state government's decision to implement the September 28 Supreme Court order allowing the entry of women of menstrual age into the shrine.

Amit Shah had earlier in a gathering in Kannur said that BJP is standing like a rock with the devotees. 

Shah also warned Vijayan to stop the politics over Sabarimala arrests else his (Vijayan's)  government won't last long. Shah added that the BJP workers would give befitting replies if the schemes don't stop.