Akash Sama­roo

Se­nior Re­porter

akash.sama­roo@cnc3.co.tt

While the In­ter-Re­li­gious Or­gan­i­sa­tion (IRO) has wel­comed the Gov­ern­ment’s de­ci­sion to re­place this year’s In­de­pen­dence Day cel­e­bra­tions with a Na­tion­al Day of Prayer, the Sanatan Dhar­ma Ma­ha Sab­ha (SDMS) ex­pressed con­cern over the tim­ing of the an­nounce­ment.

The SDMS told Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day it ful­ly sup­ports the move, par­tic­u­lar­ly the ban on noisy fire­works. How­ev­er, Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al Vi­jay Ma­haraj said the an­nounce­ment seemed rushed, which he be­lieves has con­tributed to some of the di­vi­sive pub­lic re­ac­tions.

Ma­haraj al­leged that the Gov­ern­ment was aware of its de­ci­sion to can­cel the events ear­li­er than it pub­licly an­nounced.

“All of a sud­den, it came fly­ing out at the pop­u­la­tion, right? I think this was pre­planned ear­li­er in the year. It was un­for­tu­nate that it was done in this spon­ta­neous man­ner,” Ma­haraj said.

Ma­haraj said he wel­comes a day of prayer and ful­ly ac­cepts the Gov­ern­ment’s rea­son for the can­cel­la­tion, as it cit­ed se­cu­ri­ty con­cerns dur­ing the State of Emer­gency (SoE).

How­ev­er, Ma­haraj said he has al­so not­ed the con­tro­ver­sy sur­round­ing the an­nounce­ment and the back­lash that the Gov­ern­ment is re­ceiv­ing from some mem­bers of the pub­lic, some of it with racial un­der­tones. This, he be­lieves, could have been avoid­ed had the Gov­ern­ment ex­pressed its de­ci­sion dif­fer­ent­ly.

“I don’t see it as a bad thing, but it should have been a lit­tle bit more trans­par­ent, maybe, you know, a week or two in ad­vance, be­fore it was an­nounced.”

He added, “I think the peo­ple would have been able to di­gest it a lot more.”

In re­sponse, Le­gal Af­fairs Min­is­ter Sad­dam Ho­sein said, “I will as­sure the na­tion that the de­ci­sion was made at the ap­pro­pri­ate time, hav­ing the ad­vice of the ex­perts in the mat­ter.”

Ma­haraj said the SDMS has not planned any spe­cial ac­tiv­i­ties for the Day of Prayer but is ready to part­ner with the Gov­ern­ment on Au­gust 31 if called up­on for any com­mem­o­ra­tive events.

Mean­while, the IRO said it is “deeply elat­ed” by the an­nounce­ment of a Na­tion­al Day of Prayer on Au­gust 31.

Its Pres­i­dent, Dr El­lis Bur­ris, said, “We will try our ut­most to en­cour­age the na­tion, to pray for the na­tion, the pros­per­i­ty and good­will of the na­tion and for the sup­pres­sion of crime and all those things that are good for the up­lift­ment of our coun­try.”

The IRO Pres­i­dent urged all re­li­gious or­gan­i­sa­tions “in every nook and cran­ny” to ded­i­cate a spe­cial part of their wor­ship on that day for the “up­lift­ment of the na­tion.”

Bur­ris said on Tues­day that the IRO will meet to pos­si­bly pre­pare it­self for any event the State may have on that day.

“We are tak­ing the lead. That’s a cue that the Gov­ern­ment has giv­en, that the IRO should be in­volved be­cause we are re­spon­si­ble for re­li­gious op­er­a­tions in the na­tion. The IRO is that body that is part of the con­sti­tu­tion that has to deal with re­li­gious and in­ter­faith arrange­ments,” Bur­ris said.

Guardian Me­dia al­so spoke with Imam Ahamad Ho­sein, head of the An­ju­man Sun­nat-ul-Ja­maat As­so­ci­a­tion (AS­JA), who said his or­gan­i­sa­tion is “nei­ther here nor there” re­gard­ing the de­ci­sion.

The AS­JA head said they will not be do­ing any­thing spe­cial on Au­gust 31.

Asked if he sup­port­ed the Gov­ern­ment’s de­ci­sion, Ho­sein said, “It is not a mat­ter of sup­port; they have made their de­ci­sion, and we have to abide by it.”

Ef­forts to reach the Pres­by­ter­ian and Ro­man Catholic boards were un­suc­cess­ful.