Top officials including Kerala temple affairs minister VN Vasavan, revenue minister and district in-charge K Rajan and Thrissur MP Suresh Gopi reviewed the arrangements for the annual Thrissur Pooram festival scheduled to be held on Tuesday.
The sample display of bursting of firecrackers in the run up to the Pooram festivities was conducted on Sunday evening in which one personnel of the Fire and Rescue Services suffered simple injuries. He was hospitalised following the incident.
The Thrissur Pooram is the largest Hindu temple festival in Kerala and is attended by thousands of people. Celebrated on the grounds of the Vadakkumnathan temple in the heart of Thrissur town, it features processions involving dozens of percussionists and captive elephants carrying the deities of two principal temples — Paramekkavu Bhagavathy temple and Thiruvambady Sree Krishna temple — and eight other smaller temples located within a few kilometres of the main town.
The highlights of the Pooram include the “vilambaram” as part of which an elephant carrying the deity of Neithilakkavu Bhagavathy opens the southern door of the Vadakkumnathan temple, the “madathil varavu” as part of which over 40 percussionists engage in a frenetic display of “panchari melam”, the “kudamattom” in which umbrellas in all kinds of colours, shapes and patterns are exchanged atop 30 elephants and finally the display of firecrackers or “vedikettu”.
Ministers Vasavan and Rajan and MP Gopi took part in a meeting with top cops and temple officials to review the security arrangements of the festival on Sunday.
“The Thrissur Pooram must not be made a venue for the display of any kind of symbols or flags of any political party. The police have been directed to take strict action on such incidents. There have been such isolated incidents at other temple festivals,” the temple affairs minister told reporters.
Minister Rajan supported his colleague on the issue. “When any festival takes place, the mind of any Malayali is secular. There must not be any kind of differences of political opinion on this. Religious differences must not be created at such festival venues.”
Lok Sabha MP Gopi said he was “blessed” by the people of Thrissur to be elected as MP and subsequently Union minister of state and underlined that he looked forward to witnessing the Pooram in person this time.
“I have only watched the Pooram on earlier occasions on television. This is the first time I will be able to witness the Pooram closely along with other people. I feel blessed. I had never imagined that I would be here in Thrissur as an MP and Union Minister at the time of Pooram,” the BJP leader said.
The MP supported the minister’s stand on the display of religious and political symbols during the Pooram. “It’s a good decision because the festival is a social wealth. It must be made acceptable to everyone without hindering the rituals associated with the festival,” said Gopi.
Last year’s Pooram had fallen in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections in which a frenetic political contest was seen between BJP’s Gopi, K Muraleedharan of the Congress and VS Sunil Kumar of the CPI. When results came, Gopi beat Kumar by 74,686 votes, the first time a BJP candidate won a LS contest in Kerala.
The Pooram festivities last year also saw a disruption with the enthusiasts not being able to witness several rituals due to a large number of police barricades and alleged high-handedness on the part of the security forces. There were several delays in the rituals including the display of firecrackers. A three-tier probe was announced by the state government last year in which then ADGP MR Ajith Kumar remains one of the key accused.