Sabarimala protests part of BJP-RSS game plan: CPI-M

New Delhi: The agitation against the Supreme Court verdict on Sabarimala is part of an "all-India game plan of the BJP and RSS to stir up communal tensions and create communal polarization" ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the CPI-M has said.

"Given the all-round failure of the Modi government and with the Lok Sabha elections just six months away, the BJP and RSS have begun to desperately revive communal and divisive issues," said an editorial in the CPI-M journal "People's Democracy".

"Central amongst them is the Ram temple at Ayodhya," the Communist Party of India-Marxist said.

The editorial said that the aim of the BJP, RSS and allied groups was to provoke violence and create trouble within the Sabarimala temple premises and to put the blame on the Kerala government led by the CPI-M "for destroying the sanctity of the temple".

It quoted Kerala BJP President Sreedharan Pillai as saying that their struggle was against the Communist government and not the entry of women into the temple.

The CPI-M said that the Kerawla government had acted only against BJP-RSS activists, including some criminal elements, who it alleged wanted to take control of the temple premises.

"There was no hindrance for the tens of thousands of devotees who had begun to flow in to pray at the temple."

On the contrary, the state-wide shutdown called by the BJP and other groups on November 17 "actually inconvenienced a large number of pilgrims who had come for the Sabarimala pilgrimage from outside the state".

The editorial accused the Congress party in Kerala of "shamelessly" lining up behind the Hindutva forces in condemning the state government and echoing the demands of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

"The campaign to revive the building of Ram temple at Ayodhya and the agitation against the Supreme Court verdict on Sabarimala are part and parcel of the pre-election agenda of the Sangh parivar," the editorial said.