Kochi: Tension continues to prevail at the Cochin International Airport Limited at Nedumbassery as hundreds of protesters chanting Ayyappa hymns remain gathered outside blocking the gender equality activist Trupti Desai, who had announced her pilgrimage to Sabarimala Temple, from emerging out of the arrival terminal of the airport.
Ms. Desai, however, remains steadfast on the plan to undertake the Sabarimala pilgrimage as planned despite the strong protest. She is in no mood to turn back, said a police official who has been interacting with her at the airport.
Ms. Desai and six women pilgrims, all aged under 50, had arrived at the airport by an Indigo flight from Pune at 4.40 a.m on Friday. But the group could not step out of the terminal even more than two hours after their arrival in the face of stiff protest by people claiming to be Ayyappa devotees even as their number kept swelling by the minute.
The protesters had started gathering at the airport long before Ms. Desai arrived at the airport with Bharatiya Janata Party leaders organising them. A huge posse of police personnel numbering over 100 led by the Deputy Commissioner of Police J. Himendranath has been deployed at the airport.
Ms. Desai had planned to take a cab from the airport to Kottayam from where she was to proceed to Sabarimala on Saturday. But as it is, no prepaid taxi operator was willing to take her considering the potentially violent protest en route Kottayam.
“We have been trying for over a couple of hours to find a private taxi to transport her to Kottayam but no one has volunteered yet. As time goes by the the number of protesters is swelling and their demand is also changing,” said Mr. Himendranath.
M.N. Gopi, BJP district secretary, said that Ms. Desai has no other way but to return dropping her plan for undertaking Sabarimala pilgrimage. “No online taxi driver has come forward to take her and the devotees will not allow her to be taken outside the airport on a police vehicle. We are organising the arrival of more protesters to the airport,” he said.
Police have also ruled out that option for the time being considering that it would be portrayed as giving special treatment to Ms. Desai. Police negotiations with the protesters to find a feasible solution to the stalemate has not yet succeeded even though security has been beefed up along the route from the airport to Kottayam.
Ms. Desai, however, remains steadfast on the plan to undertake the Sabarimala pilgrimage as planned despite the strong protest. She is in no mood to turn back, said a police official who has been interacting with her at the airport.
Amidst the tension, Industries Minister E.P. Jayarajan arrived at the airport from Delhi but left without responding to the waiting media.
The protest at the security-sensitive airport continues to be a major headache for the police and the Central Industrial Security Force entrusted with the security of the airport.
Meanwhile, BJP is learned to be in the process of organising a protest by “mothers” to keep up the pressure.