RHON­DOR DOWLAT 

The Na­tion­al Coun­cil of In­di­an Cul­ture (NCIC) has writ­ten to Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Er­la Hare­wood-Christo­pher, urg­ing an in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to a vi­ral video show­ing a man de­liv­er­ing in­flam­ma­to­ry re­marks against Hin­duism at the Di­vali Na­gar com­pound in Ch­agua­nas on De­cem­ber 31.

The man, claim­ing to be Rasta­far­i­an, is al­so al­leged to have made sim­i­lar tirades out­side mosques and oth­er places of wor­ship in re­cent days.

Promi­nent Rasta­far­i­an leader Glen­roy “Bon­go Grease” Halls, last week strong­ly con­demned such be­hav­iour, say­ing it was en­tire­ly con­trary to the phi­los­o­phy of Rasta­fari.

Halls em­pha­sised, “Rasta­fari has noth­ing to do with such con­duct. Our phi­los­o­phy has al­ways been one of peace, love, and re­spect for all hu­man­i­ty.”

The in­ci­dent has sparked out­rage among po­lit­i­cal and re­li­gious lead­ers.

Ch­agua­nas West MP and at­tor­ney Di­nesh Ram­bal­ly de­scribed the re­marks made at the Di­vali Na­gar site as deeply of­fen­sive and a vi­o­la­tion of the law.

“The Hin­du com­mu­ni­ty must not tol­er­ate in­sults against their gods,” Ram­bal­ly stat­ed.

“These ver­bal at­tacks are not harm­less—they are in­tend­ed as in­sults and must be treat­ed as such. I ad­vise the Sanatan Dhar­ma Ma­ha Sab­ha (SDMS) and the NCIC to file a po­lice re­port and con­sid­er pri­vate pros­e­cu­tion.” The SDMS has al­so is­sued a strong state­ment con­demn­ing the video, call­ing for im­me­di­ate po­lice ac­tion. It de­scribed the re­marks as deeply deroga­to­ry and warned of their po­ten­tial to in­cite di­vi­sion and hos­til­i­ty. The SDMS al­so re­mind­ed au­thor­i­ties of pri­or in­ci­dents of van­dal­ism against Hin­du tem­ples and oth­er places of wor­ship that re­main un­re­solved.

Both the NCIC and SDMS have called on the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) to thor­ough­ly in­ves­ti­gate the mat­ter and en­sure the in­di­vid­ual is held ac­count­able for pro­mot­ing hate speech. The or­gan­i­sa­tions urged cit­i­zens to re­main vig­i­lant and re­port any in­stances of re­li­gious ha­tred or dis­crim­i­na­tion, un­der­scor­ing the im­por­tance of pre­serv­ing T&T’s mul­ti­cul­tur­al and in­ter­faith har­mo­ny.

The T&TPS is yet to say whether or not an in­ves­ti­ga­tion will be launched.