Bo­bie-Lee Dixon

(bo­bie-lee.dixon@guardian.co.tt)

Yet an­oth­er voice rep­re­sent­ing the Hin­du com­mu­ni­ty in T&T is speak­ing out against Sat­narayan Ma­haraj’s call for Hin­dus to “free their vote” and sup­port his ban on Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar from the Lashk­mi Girls' Hin­du Col­lage com­pound in St Au­gus­tine.

Busi­ness­man Su­ru­jdeo Man­ga­roo, who told the T&T Guardian his state­ment was not linked to or on be­half of the Na­tion­al Coun­cil of In­di­an Cul­ture to which he is an af­fil­i­ate, took to his Face­book page yes­ter­day to give his per­spec­tive on the con­tent of Ma­haraj’s in­ter­view on Fri­day on TV Jaagri­ti and to af­firm his con­cur­rence with the boy­cotting of this year’s Ma­ha Sab­ha In­di­an Ar­rival Day cel­e­bra­tions.

In the “Sat holds no Hin­du hostages,” head­line re­lease, Man­ga­roo said the Ma­ha Sab­ha over the years have fooled them­selves to be­lieve that their stran­gle­hold on the Hin­du schools and mandirs equate with some com­mand of the Hin­dus who pa­tro­n­ise these es­tab­lish­ments.

Man­ga­roo slammed Ma­haraj for what he de­scribes as ab­hor­rent and vile state­ments made by the Hin­du leader on Fri­day. He said Ma­haraj is un­be­com­ing of the largest Hin­du or­gan­i­sa­tion of T&T and la­belled his vo­cal at­tack on Per­sad-Bisses­sar as the “last straw,” of Ma­haraj’s opin­ion­at­ed and con­tentious spews. Man­ga­roo un­der­scored what made the at­tack even worse was the fact that it came in re­sponse to Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s de­fend­ing of the con­sti­tu­tion­al rights of a Mus­lim fe­male on-the-job trainee.

“The is­sue is not of re­li­gious rights but of sim­ple hu­man rights and dig­ni­ty. Ma­ha Sab­ha me­dia last Fri­day hu­mil­i­at­ed the large cross sec­tion of the Hin­du com­mu­ni­ty. It is pre­his­toric po­si­tions as this one on the hi­jab that has re­sult­ed in the pulling away to form a mul­ti­tude of ri­val or­gan­i­sa­tions and mass con­ver­sions over the years,” Man­ga­roo said.

Man­ga­roo said Ma­haraj mis­rep­re­sent­ed that the Hin­du com­mu­ni­ty was now free to sup­port who­ev­er they want­ed. He asked Ma­haraj to ex­plain just when the Hin­du com­mu­ni­ty was im­pris­oned by any one Hin­du or­gan­i­sa­tion.

“If the Ma­ha Sab­ha held such sway over of the Hin­du com­mu­ni­ty why didn’t the Sat sup­port­ed Con­gress of the Peo­ple win the 2007 gen­er­al elec­tion? Why didn’t the Sat sup­port­ed UNC win the Ch­agua­nas by-elec­tion against Jack Warn­er? Why didn’t Sat win his seat in the 1971 gen­er­al elec­tion? The on­ly elec­tions that Sat has been able to win year af­ter year is the Ma­ha Sab­ha elec­tions,” Man­ga­roo said.