TDB president Prayar Gopalakrishnan wants women of respect' to stay off Sabari

Kottayam: Even though the Supreme Court rendered its verdict favouring the entry of women into the Sabarimala temple, those women who respect tradition will not enter the temple, said Travancore Devaswom Board ( TDB) president Prayar Gopalakrishnan. He was speaking to reporters at Kottayam. He said that the stand of the Travancore Devaswom Board was that women should not enter the Sabarimala temple and they “were are not planning to transform Sabarimala as Thailand”.

Mr Prayar was reacting to the Supreme Court decision to leave the issue of the entrance of women inside the Sabarimala temple to a 5-member Constitutional bench of the SC. “If a favourable verdict came and in case of the women entering the temple, it would create grave security issues. If women came for Darshan we will find it difficult to arrange security,” he said. Mr Prayar welcomed the SC decision to leave the issue before the Constitutional bench of the SC.

He said that the TDB was firmly sticking to its stand that those women in between the age group of 10 and 50 should not enter the temple. The TDB chairman said that they considered faith and rituals as their privilege that and no one should intervene in those issues. Mr Prayar expressed confidence that the SC verdict would be in favour of the TDB.