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No need for Ban Ki Moon to decide on the date for Diwali

Nov 02, 2015 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

For the first time in the recorded history of Guyana, Diwali is going to be celebrated on two separate days. The government has declared November 10th as a Public holiday for Diwali, while the major Hindu organization in Guyana has declared it as November 11, 2015.
Unlike the imposition of the 2am curfew for bars and pubs, the November 10th date is not going to be rammed down the throats of Hindus in Guyana. The vast majority of Guyanese are  going to light their diyas on November 11, 2015.
This is most unfortunate. There is no politics involved here. The Guyana Hindu Dharmic Sabha is not playing politics with the Diwali celebrations. It does not need to. It believes that the date should be November 11th and it is calling for this day to be made the official holiday.
It is claimed that the government consulted widely on this issue. But consultation is not the issue at stake here. It is the absence of an agreed date and so long as this is outstanding then greater efforts should have been made to reach an agreement.
Consultation on such a serious issue cannot simply involve asking various pandits and Hindu organizations on which date Diwali should be observed. From the moment that it was obvious that the Guyana Hindu Dharmic Sabha had a different date, the consultations should have taken a different approach.
The government should have sat down with the Sabha and discussed the reasons for the Sabha’s choice of date. It should have called a general council of all Hindu organizations and ask that the issue be dealt with.
The approach taken by the government of simply consulting widely and then making a decision may be good in other circumstances, but when it comes to an important issue like Diwali, once it was recognized that there was no unanimity on a date, steps should have been taken to engage the Sabha and to provide reasons for the choice of the date and allow the Sabha an opportunity to pay its case.
This is the first Diwali of the new government. It should be controversy free. The government should have tried to bring the differing parties together to agree on a date.
The government cannot be speaking about social cohesion when this decision of the choice of the date for Diwali is going to divide the largest religious grouping in the country. This is a major misstep by the new government. It should have avoided courting controversy on this issue because this year Diwali will go down in infamy as the only year when there was division on this issue.
There is no need for an imposed date. Such an action will backfire on the government. There is need for discussion on this issue for independent advice to be sought. This advice however cannot be sought until there is meaningful consultation with the Sabha.
The government must not presume that it can simply ignore the Sabha. Burnham thought he could have done that and split the Hindu community. It never happened. The Sabha enjoys the support of the majority of Hindus in Guyana. The views of the Sabha need to be taken on board.
It is not always what is done but how things are done. The Sabha’s views cannot be lightly dismissed. The group deserves respect because of the support it commands within the Hindu community.
It is not too late to seek a resolution to the problem. There is no reason for Ban Ki Moon to be called in.
A simple meeting between the differing sides can hammer out a solution.

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