Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Brinda Karat on Monday denounced Dwaraka-Sharda Peeth Shankaracharya Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati for his remark that women's entry in the Shingnapur temple will lead to crimes such as rapes against them and said that such 'retrograde thinking' ought to be 'rejected with contempt'.
"It is so much obscure, reactionary and retrograde thinking. Will the Shankaracharya answer that all these years women were not allowed into the temple so was there no problem that women faced? How can he say that women going into the temple is going to lead to destruction of women?" Karat asked.
"So, this thinking itself is far removed from reality, India's Constitution, from the people's experiences that it just has to be rejected with contempt," she added.
Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati, had in an absurd remark, said that women being allowed to enter Shani temple would lead to deity's eye falling on them, which would to increase in rapes.
Saraswati was reacting to women led by activist Trupti Desai who performed prayers in Maharashtra's Shani Shingnapur temple last Friday and broke age-old tradition that prohibited women from entering the sanctum sanctorum of the shrine.,
"Women entered Shani temple's inner sanctum. The women are worshipping Shani in the temple. By doing so, Shani's eyes would fall on women and this would result in increase of rape incidents," Swaroopanand Saraswati told ANI.
Bowing to the Bombay High Court order, the temple trust had last week broke the 400 years tradition and announced that both men and women will henceforth be allowed to enter the inner sanctum and offer their prayers.