‘Would you take sanitary napkin seeped in menstrual blood to friend’s home’: Smriti Irani on Sabarimala row

Union minister Smriti Irani on Tuesday said everyone has the right to pray but not to desecrate amid a controversy over the Supreme Court’s verdict overturning the centuries-old ban on women of menstrual age entering the hilltop shrine in Kerala’s Sabarimala.“I believe I have the right to pray but I don’t have the right to desecrate… And that is the difference we need to recognise and respect … I am nobody to speak on the Supreme Court verdict because I am a current serving cabinet minister,” Irani said during an event in Mumbai.“But just plain common sense. Would you take sanitary napkins steeped in menstrual blood and walk into a friend’s home? You would not. And would you think that is it respectful to do the same when you walk into the house of god? So that is the difference. I have a right to pray but I don’t have the right to desecrate that is my personal opinion,” the 42-year-old minister said.