{"id":305582,"date":"2018-11-16T06:09:51","date_gmt":"2018-11-16T06:09:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tehelka.com\/?p=305582"},"modified":"2018-11-16T06:09:51","modified_gmt":"2018-11-16T06:09:51","slug":"activist-trupti-desai-blocked-by-protesters-at-kochi-airport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/activist-trupti-desai-blocked-by-protesters-at-kochi-airport\/","title":{"rendered":"Activist Trupti Desai blocked by protesters at Kochi airport"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-305583 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/tehelka.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/trupti-300x187.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"470\" height=\"293\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/media\/2018\/11\/trupti-300x187.jpg 300w, https:\/\/tehelka.com\/media\/2018\/11\/trupti.jpg 647w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 470px) 100vw, 470px\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Activist Trupti Desai, who had vowed to visit the Sabarimala temple was forced to stay inside the Cochin International Airport on Friday as protesters gathered outside.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">The protesters said that they would not allow Desai and her six women colleagues to step out of the airport.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Desai and her group arrived at Kochi airport at around 4.40 a.m. on Friday. However, they have failed to get out of the airport as activists protested right outside.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">The taxi drivers had also refused to take Desai and her colleagues on their onward journey.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">The protesters comprising devotees and BJP workers assembled early Friday outside the airport and started\u00a0shouting slogans.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Police reached there in large numbers to control the situation. Despite pleas from the police, Desai said she would not return without visiting the\u00a0temple.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Activist Desai, wrote to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and state police chief about\u00a0her plans to visit the shrine, seeking police protection during her visit to the state.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">The Supreme Court in September passed an order of allowing women of menstruating age to enter the temple. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Many women in the past had attempted to enter the shrine but failed to do so due to violent protests by devotees.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">The Kerala government called an all-party meeting on Thursday to discuss the issue. However, the Congress and the BJP walked out.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">The Supreme Court on January 22 will hear the review petitions challenging its own order.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">The temple is scheduled to open on Friday at 5 p.m.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Activist Trupti Desai, who had vowed to visit the Sabarimala temple was forced to stay inside the Cochin International Airport on Friday as protesters gathered outside. The protesters said that they would not allow Desai and her six women colleagues to step out of the airport. Desai and her group arrived at Kochi airport at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":305583,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2196,2072,2014],"tags":[9698,2192,466,4106,3926],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305582"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305582"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":305584,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305582\/revisions\/305584"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/305583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}