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DISRUPTION OF DEEPAVALI PROGRAMME AT UNIVERSITY OF GUYANA
DEAR EDITOR
I sincerely thank the Peeping Tom and Kaieteur News 8th November 2018 for informing the public of the fact that the Rangoli event at UG to observe Deepavali was disrupted by a Christian activist.
Assuming this occurrence is a fact as published, it amounts to a serious affront to myself as a Hindu and should be so for all other Hindus and their Organisations and must be of a grave concern to right thinking Guyanese.
Firstly, I call on all Hindu bodies especially, to roundly condemn the actions of this misguided individual and to write the powers that be at UG for a meeting to ensure that steps are immediately taken to ensure that there is no repetition of this ugly incident particularly since the Peeping Tom has alluded to yet another similar situation some time ago.
It is also important for the Social Cohesion Minister to be apprised of this matter officially by the officials of the UG Hindu Society and a formal complaint and investigation be launched to see if this disruptive activity was the effort of an individual /loose cannon only or whether it was orchestrated by a group of persons.
As pointed out by the Peeper, there are laws to deal with persons inciting racial hostility but ostensibly none to deal with persons causing inter religious disharmony or disaffection. I definitely recommend that our Parliamentarians look at this to bring legislation to deal with any such similar conduct in the future.
From my view point, Hinduism, not being a” religion” originating in the Abrahamic tradition of the other two main religions is still seen as a Pariah by adherents of Christianity/Islam and in reality, there are still concerted efforts by some members of these two at converting Hindus to bring them into the “mainstream.”
This is clearly an unacceptable situation and I call on Hindus to bring pressure to bear at all levels for legislation to be put into place to prevent this kind of abuse of adherents to the tenets of Sanatana Vedic Dharma (Hinduism) as alluded to in this instance, since we have the right under our constitution to freely practice our system of worship without interference or hindrance by any one whatsoever. Of course, this proposed legislation would serve to protect followers of all religions.
One thing I know for sure is that Hindus always give respect to other beliefs and traditions and it would be extremely rare to hear that Hindus in Guyana have disrupted activities of Christians, Muslims or indeed of any other denomination.
I call on the Vice Chancellor of the University to immediately order a thorough investigation into this incident and to issue a public report on his findings since there are many Hindu students attending the University who must find this incident terribly disconcerting.
Yours sincerely
Christopher M. Persaud
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