Sabarimala verdict: Shiv Sena calls for Kerala shutdown on Monday
Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 29 : The Kerala unit of Shiv Sena on Saturday announced a statewide shutdown on Monday to protest the Supreme Court verdict throwing open the Sabarimala temple to all women.
Party's state secretary M.S. Bhuvendran alleged the verdict overlooked the temple traditions and rituals.
"The Sabarimala temple has been following certain traditions much before the Indian Constitution came into being. These traditions are being followed by thousands of its devotees. Such traditions can not be looked down upon as it hurts the sentiments of the devotees," said Bhuvendran.
"Monday's statewide shutdown is in protest against the vedict," said Bhuvendran.
In a related development, the Pandalam royal family, which has an integral role in the affairs of the Sabarimala temple, is learnt to have begun legal consultations to file a review petition against the apex court verdict.
The Pandalam Palace is the custodian of Sabarimala temple jewels.
In a majority 4:1 judgment, the top court also read down the provision of Kerala laws that protected the prohibition and said it could not be covered under practices essential and integral to religious practice.
Justice Indu Malhotra, the only woman judge in the five-judges bench, gave a dissenting judgment.
Chief Justice Dipak Misra reading out the judgment, also on behalf of Justice A.M. Khanwilkar, said that subversion of women's rights under the garb of physiological phenomenon cannot be allowed.
Meanwhile, state police chief Loknath Behra said on Saturday that a lot of work has to be done about welcoming women devotees in the upcoming festival season that begins in November.
"Special arrangements have to be worked for separate queues for women and all such issues concerning women devotees," said Behra.
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NATO, others turn down US call for help in Hormuz: Trump
Washington (PTI): President Donald Trump on Tuesday said NATO and most of US' other allies have rejected his calls to help secure the Strait of Hormuz as the war with Iran entered the third week.
In a social media post, Trump asserted that Iran’s military has been “decimated” and he no longer felt the need for assistance from NATO countries or anyone else.
Last week, Trump had sought help from European nations and others who depend on oil supplies transiting from the Hormuz Strait to safeguard the critical waterway.
“The United States has been informed by most of our NATO “Allies” that they don’t want to get involved with our Military Operation against the Terrorist Regime of Iran, in the Middle East, this, despite the fact that almost every Country strongly agreed with what we are doing, and that Iran cannot, in any way, shape, or form, be allowed to have a Nuclear Weapon,” the US President said in a post on Truth Social.
Iran's attacks on Gulf nations and its grip on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil is transported, have sparked increasing concerns of a global energy crisis and are unnerving the world economy.
“I am not surprised by their action, however, because I always considered NATO, where we spend Hundreds of Billions of Dollars per year protecting these same Countries, to be a one-way street — We will protect them, but they will do nothing for us, in particular, in a time of need,” Trump said.
He said Australia, Japan and South Korea too have turned down his call for help.
“Fortunately, we have decimated Iran’s Military – Their Navy is gone, their Air Force is gone, their Anti-Aircraft and Radar is gone and perhaps, most importantly, their Leaders, at virtually every level, are gone, never to threaten us, our Middle Eastern Allies, or the World, again,” Trump said.
He said that given the scale of recent military successes, the US no longer "need" or desires assistance from NATO countries, adding that it never relied on such support in the first place.
Speaking as President of the United States, the "most powerful" country in the world, "we do not need" help from anyone, Trump said.
The West Asia conflict began on February 28 when the US-Israeli combine conducted airstrikes on Iran.
The Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the open ocean, has effectively been shut following the US and Israel attack on Iran and Tehran's sweeping retaliation.
However, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had said that from Tehran's "perspective", the strait is "open". "It is only closed to Iran's enemies, to those who carried out unjust aggression against our country and to their allies.”
Earlier in the day, a second Indian-flagged LPG tanker, Nanda Devi, reached the country after safely sailing from the war-hit Strait of Hormuz. On Monday, the first ship, Shivalik, reached Mundra port in Gujarat.
As of now, 22 Indian vessels remain on the west side and two on the east side of the strait.
Indian authorities are in constant touch with all the relevant stakeholders in the region to secure the safe passage of the remaining ships, officials said.
