Dear Editor,
Kindly allow me to respond to a group of very highly qualified Hindu academics who penned the letter, `Gov’t must address the absence of cultural sensitivities among public servants’ (SN 15th April 2022). They wrote in response and in support of Swami Aksharananda’s letter, `No gov’t official should possess such power and arrogance’ (SN 12th April 2022). The issue was that of a non-Hindu public health official ordering that a certain cremation be started at 3 pm instead of 1 pm. It would appear that the cremation party was late and that annoyed the health officer. It is unfortunate that the said official was made into a culprit when in fact Hindus were previously ordered off the site by a PPP operative and there was no hue and cry.
A few months ago I attended a cremation at Ruimzigt where the cremation party was told by a person who was not a health official, and who I knew to be a Hindu and PPP supporter, that they had 15 minutes to “light the fire and leave because a Minister coming for the next cremation and he wanted privacy.” Within 15 minutes all the attendees left the site although I urged some of them to stay. The cremation party was late but it was 2 hours before the start of the next cremation so there was no need to order people off the site, except to display power drunken arrogance and loyalty to the Minister and that was meekly accepted by the Hindu attendees.
What prompted me to respond to the Hindu academics’ letter was their reference to “Indian docility,” when in fact it was Hindu docility. Hindu academics must deal with the Hindu problem of them voting the PPP into power since 1992 but being docile and subservient to the PPP government, wielding tremendous political and economic power but simultaneously refusing to serve in the Police and Army, being a dominant group but overwhelmed by rum and noise, domestic violence, killing of wives, kicking up of daughters, killing a Pandit. I urge them to examine the circumstances that led to a Pandit being killed by a group of rum and noise youths at Crabwood Creek to better understand the maladies being embraced by Hindus in Guyana.
Yours sincerely,
Malcolm Harripaul
