Scared of public anger over its U-turn on its Sabarimala stand in the Supreme Court, Travancore Dewaswom Bord (TDB) president and members gave a miss to the flag hoisting ceremony and inauguration of the cultural meeting in connection with the festival of Ettumanoor Shiva temple, the second most important temple under the Board.
President A Padmakumar, member KP Sankaradas and another member V Vijayakumar did not participate in the temple programmes. Padmakumar had agreed to inaugurate the cultural meeting. But, the very same morning he informed the temple advisory committee members that he would not be coming. TDB members KP Sankaradas and another member N Vijayakumar were reportedly very much in Kottayam, a few kilometers away from Ettumanoor. They did not turn up either. TDB Commissioner and Chief Engineer Sankaran Potti were also expected in the programme. Interestingly, they, too, were missing.
In a clear ploy to confuse devotees, Padmakumar on Thursday, had criticised the board’s advocate for favouring the SC verdict and for not focusing on the petition seeking time to implement the SC verdict. However, soon after his statement, CPI (M) state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said there was no confusion in the board over the petition seeking more time to implement the verdict. “There is no relevance for the petition seeking more time since the festival season has ended.
Even at the time of filing that petition, the board had informed that it approved the verdict,” Kodiyeri said.