A fresh bid by women activists to proceed towards Trimbakeshwar temple near here was foiled by police who detained them today even as a defiant Trupti Desai, spearheading the campaign for breaking gender bias at places of worship, threatened to intensify the stir.
Desai, chief of the Bhumata Brigade, has been leading the protests seeking entry of women to the sanctum sanctorum of the famous Lord Shiva shrine against the ban on female devotees.
She and around 150 activists had yesterday left Pune for Trimbakeshwar but were stopped and detained by the police at Nandurshingote village, 80 kms away from the temple town. At 2 am today, they were allowed to return to Pune but they reassembled at the spot three hours later and made a fresh attempt to proceed towards Trimbakeshwar.
However, the police personnel present there prevented them, an official attached to Wavi police station said.
Desai claimed that she was approached by some officials from Nashik district who promised her to arrange a meeting of all stake-holders on the issue including the Trimbakeshwar Temple Trust, in next eight days.
"We have accepted the request of local administration and have given them an ultimatum of 15 days to resolve the matter. We warned them that if no solution is made, we will intensify our agitation," she told reporters here.
Narrating the sequence of events, Desai said she and other activists were let off by the police around 9 PM yesterday after detaining them at Nandurshingote village.
"We had categorically told them that the brigade is determined to go to the temple. While returning towards Pune, we did not see any police van around us and took a decision to go back towards Trimbakeshwar again (today morning).
"On the way, we were once again detained by police at the same spot near the village and now after being detained for several hours (throughout the day), we have been released. Police themselves are escorting us till our doorsteps in Pune," she said.
Desai had taken out a march January 26 to the famous Shani Shingnapur temple in Ahmednagar district seeking access for women to its sacred platform.
However, the police had foiled their bid and detained them at a village 70 km away from the shrine.
While the entry of women is banned in Trimbakeshwar temple's garbhagriha (sanctum sanctorum), men devotees are allowed to enter for an hour (between 6 am to 7 am) on condition of wearing sovala (a silk dhoti) for offering pooja to Lord Shiva.
Apart from women's rights activists, Fadnavis's wife
Amruta was among those who hailed the temple trust's decision.
"This change (allowing women into the core area) was extremely important and is a really satisfying development. This sends a strong signal that women, like men, deserve all rightful benefits," she said.
The Chief Minister said discrimination was never part of Indian culture or Sanatan Dharma but was introduced later. "Though law will do away with such discrimination, mentality of society needs to be changed if we really have to progress.
"If we have to progress in this 21st century then it is important that we remove this concept of discrimination of caste and gender from the minds of the people completely."
Sharing her husband's view, Amruta said, "this is a symbol of change but the actual change will take place only when people will start changing their mindset towards women."
After the agitation for women's entry gained momentum, the temple authorities had barred men also from entering the sanctum sanctorum. Today local men had brought sacred water of Godavari and Mulay rivers from Pravara Sangam, about 40km from Shani Shingnapur, and offered prayers.
Puspak Kewadkar, one of the two women activists who stepped on the sacred platform for the first time, later said "I am very happy. We poured oil and offered a garland to the deity in a traditional worship of Lord Shani."
She said there was no attempt to prevent them from entering the inner area either from police or villagers.
Kewadkar and another activist Priyanka Jagtap belonged to a breakaway faction of the Bhumata Brigade and had left the parent body alleging Desai was orchestrating her campaign to hog limelight for herself.
However, there was some drama before they gained entry into the shrine. Some women gathered at the gate of the temple to prevent the entry of the activists, but police prevented any untoward incident by deploying around 400 police personnel, said Sanjay Jadhav, Additional SP.
He said the women retreated from the spot after the police apprised them about the High Court directive.
In a related development, eunuchs and transgenders have also demanded right to offer prayers at the temple.
"We will also go to Shani Shinganapur as it is our right to have darshan (of the deity there)," said Kajol Guru, President of the 'Maharashtra Tritiypanthi Sanghatna', an outfit which fights for the rights of transgenders.
Meanwhile, the Hindu Janjagruti Samiti condemned the decision of the temple trustees to allow women at the "chauthara" (sacred platform), saying it was "a hasty and unfortunate one".
Parag Gokhale, a functionary of the Samiti, in a statement here, blamed the State Government and administration for "failure' to protect age-old traditions of Hindu religion.
"The trustees succumbed to the pressure brought on by the Bhumata Brigade whose agitation was publicity driven," he alleged.
