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“Boycott Maha Sabha’s annual Indian Arrival Day celebrations!”
This was the call of a Hindu Spiritual leader via a Facebook post release yesterday.
Satyanand Maharaj, of the Satya Anand Ashram Temple of Truth and Bliss, was responding to Sat Maharaj’s “vexation” call on Friday on TV Jaagriti, for Hindus in T&T to “free their votes” in the upcoming 2020 general election.
In his release, Maharaj told Hindus in T&T who did not agree with the sentiment, to boycott the popular Hindu organisation’s annual Indian Arrival Day Celebrations on May 30, 2018.
He said the secretary general of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha was unprincipled and archaic in his position regarding the “no hijab wearing” issue in Hindu schools run by the Maha Sabha board. And went on to describe the organisation’s stance as an embarrassment to the Hindu community of T&T.
“The crude and loutish rant of Sat Maharaj on Friday via the Maha Sabha media radio/TV Jaagriti, only underscores the issues surrounding the hijab. With the exception of few die-hard Maha Sabha supporters, there is little support for the banning of the OJT’s hijab and how it was done by Sat.”
The hijab issue remains a very divisive one, he said. “The educated young Hindu along with others do not identify with the antiquated thinking of Sat’s Maha Sabha of exclusion.”
Last Tuesday the story of OJT Nafisah Nakhid broke when she posted her experience on social media of being disallowed to perform teaching duties at the Lakshmi Girls’ Hindu College in St Augustine, because of her religious wear.
The story sparked outrage by some citizens, even from the Hindu community and subsequently received the attention of former opposition leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who issued an official release in support of Nakhid.
Her decision to do so was also met with fire from Sat Maharaj, on the same televised show, where he viciously “clapped back” at Persad-Bissessar calling her a hypocrite and warning her that she would “pay a hell of a price” in the 2020 general election for her open support for Nakhid. He also banned Persad-Bissessar from the school’s compound where she was due to deliver an address on Indian Arrival Day.
In Persad-Bissessar’s defense, Maharaj called for the boycott of the celebrations. “It is incumbent on the Hindu community to send an unmistakable message to the Maha Sabha that the position of Sat Maharaj is unacceptable...”