Bindu Thankam Kalyani, the Kerala school teacher who attempted to enter the Sabarimala temple in October last year, was ambushed and verbally abused by right-wing activists on Wednesday while she was on election duty in Pattambi.
Bindu, a resident of Chevayoor in Kozhikode was appointed as the ‘reserve official’ at the Sanskrit College in Pattambi, where the election material for Pattambi and Thrithala assembly constituencies was kept.
Recounting the incident, Bindu told News18 that she was identified by a group of BJP-RSS workers who came to cast their votes. “They kept peeping where I was sitting to make sure that I’m the same person who tried to enter Sabarimala,” she said.
While returning from the campus after finishing her duties, Bindu said that she was ambushed by the group, who was waiting for her outside the booth. “They asked me if I was the one who entered Sabarimala. Even before I could finish my sentence, they started abusing me,” she said, “One of them even screamed, ‘couldn’t you just go and die?’”
Sensing danger, Bindu rushed back to campus where she filed a complaint at the office of Assistant Returning officer (ARO).
Expressing her concerns in a Facebook post, Bindu said that the fact that someone could attack an Election Commission official, proves itself to be a “challenge to the democracy and the Constitution of India,” adding that she will take legal action against the miscreants who attacked her.
Bindu, who is also a gender rights activist was forced to abandon her journey to Sabarimala in October, after facing heavy protests by an unruly mob in Erumeli in Pathanamthitta.
Lord Ayappa's shrine in Sabarimala was ravaged with widespread protests last year, after the Supreme Court uplifted the traditional ban on entry of women into the temple.
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