Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah on Tuesday said Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan must realise that he cannot treat Ayyappa devotees like inmates of the Gulag.
He was expressing his disappointment over the way Kerala government has been handling the Sabarimala issue and its "ill-treatment" of devotees.
The Gulag was a system of forced labour camps established during Joseph Stalin's long reign as dictator of the Soviet Union. The word Gulag is an acronym for Glavnoe Upravlenie Lagerei, or Main Camp Administration.
"If several reports of flushing resting places for devotees and them having to spend nights next to pig droppings and dustbin are true, then Pinarayi Vijayan must realize that he can't treat Ayyappa devotees like inmates of Gulag. We won't let LDF crush people's faith with impunity," Shah said in a series of tweets.
He said the way Vijayan's government is handling the sensitive issue of Sabarimala is "disappointing".
"The Kerala Police is treating young girls, mothers and the aged inhumanly, forcing them to take the arduous pilgrimage, without even basic facilities like food, water, shelter and clean toilets," he said.
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Shah said if Vijayan thinks he can rise against people's movement to preserve Sabarimala by arresting K. Surendran, the Thrissur district BJP president and six others, then he is mistaken.
"We stand firmly with every Ayyappa devotee, who holds the Sabarimala tradition close to his heart," he said.
--IANS
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