Jaimala blames Sabarimala authorities for entry to temple

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Press Trust of India
Bangalore, June 30, 2006

Unfazed by the storm over her entry into the sanctum sanctorum of Sabarimala temple where women are barred, Kannada actress Jaimala on Friday blamed the shrine's administration for the matter and called for an end to the "unnecessary controversy" over it.

Blaming the temple authorities for "allowing her in the first place", she reiterated that "she had not touched Lord Ayyappa's feet knowingly but it happened as she was pushed and jostled, making her fall near the deity and accidentally touching it".

Noting that the "unnecessary controversy" had pained her a lot, she appealed to the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB), which administers the shrine, to put an end to it and allow her to live in peace.

The 47-year-old actress expressed confidence that justice would be meted out to her by Lord Ayyappa, to whom the temple is dedicated, as she had "not committed any mistake".
"Being a true devotee of the Lord, I am sure he will do justice to me as I have not committed any mistake," Jaimala said.

She said she would celebrate her 5Oth birthday by visiting the shrine again.
Jaimala sparked a controversy by recently admitting that she had touched the idol of Lord Ayyappa during a visit to the temple in 1987.

She asked the board to strengthen security and enforce rules "uniformly without discriminating between VVIPs and the general public". The authorities should clearly display rules on billboards in regional languages within the shrine so that "such controversies do not recur", she said.