Dear Editor,
With reference to the responses offered by the many “champions of women” to my letter (‘East Canje Motorcade was politicized’ SN, Nov 10), many of those ‘champions’ have not read it. If any one of them had done so he/she would have seen the words that I used and would not have targeted an incorrectly rendered statement. I never wrote “haul her”; what I said was “I felt like hauling them off the stage”. I wrote the letter as a Hindu, and it was an expression of how I felt. I referred to both speakers, Pandit Jagmohan and Dr Vindhya Persaud, and trying to make it look as if I was targeting women is a poor PPP trick.
While it is true that the Hindu Dharmic Sabha was pronouncing on things Hindu since the 1970s, as was stated by Rishee Thakur (‘The leadership of the Dharmic Sabha has pronounced on things Hindu since the 1970s’ SN, Nov 10) it does not mean that the Dharmic Sabha is the authority on Hinduism or that Dr Vindhya Persaud is an authority on Hinduism. She emphasized that her views were correct and insisted that Hindus should not allow themselves to be divided by Minister Ramjattan’s pronouncement on the date for the celebration of Diwali. Since I have mentioned this letter let me say that I know Rishee as a scholar, but he missed the point I made. Because I admitted that I cannot read the Patra (I never said I do not know the Patra) does not mean that I could not make the distinction between a religious statement and a political one.
I will again mention that Minister Ramjattan consulted many Hindu scholars before coming to the conclusion that Diwali should be celebrated on Nov 10. The minister was not imposing his views on Hindus as Dr Persaud did on that stage. I wonder now that we have all seen the ‘light’, that is the actual new moon, is Dr Persaud not going to apologise? The 10th was unquestionably the correct date.
Let me conclude by asking all these ‘champions’ where they were when the then Minister of Health, Dr Bheri Ramsaran publicly chastised Ms Nageer? And was Sam Hinds Jr, not abusive to a woman?
I would suggest to the ‘champions’ that all women are equal and their representations on behalf of women should encompass all and not just a few selected ones.
Yours faithfully,
Charrandass Persaud,
MP
