V.D. Satheesan says ‘no official’ Opposition boycott of Global Ayyappa Sanghamam in Kerala

Kerala’s Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan on Friday said the United Democratic Front (UDF) has not announced any official boycott of the Global Ayyappa Sanghamam to be held at Pampa on Saturday (September 20, 2025). 

Instead, he stated that the Opposition has “merely questioned the government’s moral correctness” in sponsoring such an event in the name of Ayyappa. 

He said the government should first display its commitment to Ayyappa devotees by summarily withdrawing the hundreds of cases registered against them during the Save Sabarimala Campaign in 2018. 

Mr Satheesan noted that hundreds of devotees faced prosecution on “trumped-up” charges of arson, rioting, unlawful assembly, attack on police officers and destruction of public property. He said they included scores of women and children who held “peaceful prayer marches”.

Thirdly, Mr Satheesan said the government should withdraw its Supreme Court affidavit endorsing the entry of women of childbearing age into the temple, which devotees believe “runs counter to the grain of the Ayyappa faith.”

He urged the public to take no notice of the Sanghamam unless the government shed its “deceitfulness” towards Ayyappa devotees. 

Mr Satheesan said the government has inadvertently given a leg-up to the UDF’s political fortunes by putting the Sabarimala issue on the front burner. He accused the LDF of “doing nothing” for Sabarimala’s development or the welfare of pilgrims for the past nine years.

Mr Satheesan termed the Sanghamam as “a last-minute election stunt and a vain attempt” to pull the wool over the public’s eyes. 

Protests continue

Mr Satheesan said the UDF Parliamentary Party’s indefinite protest outside the Assembly chamber, demanding the summary dismissal of the police officers responsible for the torture of a Congress worker in Kunnumkulam police station in Thrissur in 2023, would resume when the House convenes again on September 29. 

Earlier, Mr Satheesan led UDF MLAs out of the Assembly complex, marching behind a banner which sought to condemn “Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s cell-rule”. 

He accused Mr Vijayan of subverting law enforcement to target political rivals. “The police hierarchy is meaningless. It has no role in maintaining law and order. Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] control police stations. Supervisory officers have no choice but to follow the party diktat”, he said. 

Mr Satheesan said the “distressing” RTI-attested police surveillance video of uniformed officers systematically pummelling Congress leader V.S. Sujith in the police station “testified to Mr Vijayan’s law and order track record.”