THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The devotee, it seems, is a law unto himself. A Facebook post put up by an anonymous devotee barely 24 hours before the Paravur tragedy, along with a picture of a truckload of explosives being unloaded, makes this outrageous declaration: “The festival bombs for Puttingal are ready. Even if there is no permission, we will go ahead with the fireworks.”
It is an open secret that no court orders or stringent government circulars can dissuade temple or church authorities from going ahead with dangerous fireworks display. Festival committees say that they are afraid of the devotees.
“There were instances when some of our homes were stoned by unidentified persons after we put up a proposal to bring down the number of elephants for procession,” said Raghavan Meppadi, a former festival committee treasurer of Kadoor Subramania Temple, Kannur. “We will never dare to initiate a discussion about competitive fireworks. It is a sport the locals will kill to sustain” he added.
That devotees can gang up for a religious cause was demonstrated when the parishioners of Ollur St Antony's Forane Church, Thrissur, ostracised Thekkiniyath Raphael and family for objecting to the church’s high-decibel fireworks display. They even went to the extent of preventing the marriage of Raphael’s second son.
However, according to state Animal Welfare Board member M N Jayachandran the festival committees were holding up the ire of the devotee as an alibi to implement their agenda. “The committees are merely making up the devotee’s anger. Did the locals in Paravur march to the Collector’s office after permission was revoked,” he asked. Jayachandran calls it “one-upmanship”. “The incumbent committee wants to be seen as doing more for the festival than the previous one, and so with every year a festival turns more aggressive,” he said.
Nonetheless, festival committees, whenever they had shown the intent, could end practices like fireworks and elephant displays that are carried out in the name of tradition. Kanichukulangara Temple in Alappuzha has banned both years ago. Thodupuzha Sree Krishna Swami Temple did away with fireworks (which was held traditionally on the day after ‘pallivetta’) three years before and not a single devotee protested.
It is not as if devotees are so steeped in tradition that they are impervious to common sense. This year, for instance, competitive fireworks display was banned in Edivizhanna Devi Temple, Kidaram, near the capital. “This was a temple where two years before a poor headload worker had sponsored explosives worth Rs 7 lakh. Even in such a temple, patronised by such blindly passionate devotees, the festival committee could end the practice without any major protest,” said Mr Gopinathan, a teacher in the area.
Temples nearby too damaged in explosion
Of the victims, two were women. The impact of the explosion was such that a heavy concrete block fell on a person riding a two-wheeler 1 km away from the temple. Apart from the 'padakkapura’ or the explosive store house, a temple committee office, Sree Narayana Guru Mandiaram and the temples of sub-deities were also badly damaged. The glass panes of houses near the temple were broken and houses developed cracks within a 1 km radius of the temple.
The fireworks started at around 11.30 pm and the tragic explosion took place at 3.15 am. The explosion is said to have occurred after a spark from a fireworks device fell on another inflammable device that was set ready near the explosives storage room, and from it the fire spread to the explosives in the storage room.
“It all happened in a fraction of second. A huge fire ball engulfed the entire area amid a deafening sound and concrete blocks rained all over the place,” recollected Subash who was watching the incident from the balcony of his house in the vicinity of the temple.
