Death Came Riding On State-Sponsored 'Miracle'

Rajesh Ramachandran
THE ATHEISTIC Left leadership that rules Kerala, its government, the media and the society at large have blood on their hands. Various government departments have been, for many decades, working a “ miracle” on the Ponnambalamedu hill in the core area of the Periyar Tiger Reserve, a couple of kilometres from the Sabarimala temple.
The shrine is in a valley and the hill top, almost jutting out towards the valley, can be viewed clearly from down below.
On the auspicious day of ‘ Makara Sankranthi’ ( January 14), as the temple door opens after the evening puja amidst frenzied saranam calls, a mysterious light appears on the hill top. Malayalam TV channels ( the All India Radio inaugurated the live commentary long ago) erupt in hysteria claiming the sighting of the ‘ celestial light’, the miraculous ‘ makara vilakku’ or ‘ jyotis’. The next day most Malayalam newspapers would carry front page stories of the miracle.
And the 102 pilgrims who got killed on Friday in the stampede at Pullumedu ( inside the same tiger reserve core area and at roughly the same altitude as Ponnambalamedu) were camping for days to see the miracle. They saw the “ Gods lighting the lamp for lord Ayappa” and were rushing back to their vehicles when they were crushed to death.
Forget about the security lapse and the terrible mismanagement. The fact remains that the government deliberately perpetuates the mystery around the miracle lamp, allegedly lit by the temple management, the Travancore Devaswom Board, with the help of the state police and the collusion of the forest and electricity departments.
Nobody knows the exact origin of the ritual. According to one school of rationalists, the original inhabitants of the hills had a special puja on this occasion with lit torches, coinciding with the temple puja below, which more sophisticated pilgrims mistook for celestial light.
Later, when the Kerala State Electricity Board ( KSEB) began its Pampa hydro- electric project in the late Sixties and early Seventies, an engineer and his coworkers, all Ayappa devotees, re- started the puja at the Ponnambalamedu hill top.
It soon became a rage in the state. The radio commentary, organised by devotees, helped not just to publicise the event, but let the KSEB workers time the lighting of the lamp with the opening of the temple doors. I had met and interviewed a couple of retired KSEB employees, still in Thiruvananthapuram, who were part of the earlier lamp- lighting expeditions.
According to them, the procedure was very simple: After a puja at the designated spot ( the devaswom board has now built a concrete platform for the miracle), a large vessel with a heap of camphor in it would be lit and raised thrice and then snuffed out with a wet rag. End of the magic.
As the miracle raked in the moolah, the government- controlled Devaswom Board stepped in. Ever since, the government and the media have been fooling millions of devotees from across south India. In fact, most Malayalees know the fraud and hence avoid the mad miracle rush.