Freddie the FRAUD/FREUD-Mendacious tirade against Swami, others
April 9, 201755
Dear Editor,

Freddie Kissoon has had a history of spreading hatred and falsities against intellectuals like Swami Aksharananda, Ravi Dev, Rhyaan Shah, and others on account of their Indianness. Freddie uses lies, fabrication, intimidation and fear tactics as weapons against these intellectual colossuses. And as a Lilliputian, he defames giants (without a shred of evidence) to cower them into submission as he can’t argue rationally with intellect.

In addition, Freddie encourages hate comments against Indians, as he finds such attacks expedient in his anti-Indian mission. That is the nature of his latest invective against Swami Aksharananda and others. So, instead of castigating Pastor Steve Anderson for his sickening attack on Hinduism and Indians, self-hater Freddie disingenuously pillories Swami-ji for critiquing the pastor. Freddie mendaciously places Swami in the same league with Anderson. This is plain wrong, and it is hardly a reasonable basis for justifying Anderson’s unacceptable behaviour. No one should be attacked on account of his/her faith or racial identity, and the newspaper must be condemned for allowing this unjustifiable attack.
Freddie is unprepared to play the role of an honest, responsible letter editor or columnist; and, as he stated, my responses to him will never see the pages of KN.
As journalist intellectual Walter Lippman wrote, there is only one side to a fact; but Freddie has several sides to a fact. What Freddie wrote against Swami and others is fiction. And Freddie’s religious (cultural and political) ignorance is appalling by any standard. His hatred of Indians blinds him to reality. He lacks what in politics is known as reflective thinking – relate events or thoughts to reality around. He tells flat out lies and slants information to suit his purpose. He provides flawed and incomplete info on issues. He suffers from what in journalism is known as “pretension of facts”.

Freddie referred to Anderson as “Pastor”, but refused to accord the same respect to Aksharananda as “Swami”. Freddie refers to Aksharananda-ji as a “Hindu Priest,” which he is not. Aksharnanda is a Swami, which is an elevated title to a Pandit. And there is no such thing as a Hindu priest; it is Pandit. Clearly, this shows that Freddie has no cultural or religious training, and does not understand Hindu titles.
Swami and Anderson are not comparable. Swami-ji is a scholar, intellectual, non-racist, and a virtuous person who does not go about attacking people’s faith or ethnicity.
Freddie contends that Swami, Dev, Shah, and other Indian intellectuals called for “race voting”, but no newspaper account supports Freddie’s claim. Freddie also charged that Dev campaigned in the 2015 election; Dev was not a 2015 candidate, and never appeared on any platform or in the media urging people how to vote. Rhyaan and Swami were/are not members of any party, and they did not instruct people on voting. Freddie, on the other hand, proudly campaigned for the PNC, engaging in propaganda for his favourite party.

Freddie has distorted Swami-ji’s political position, accusing the revered Swami of engaging in political propaganda and hate. He charges that Swami wrote a commentary reminding Indians of their ethnic identity and abuses suffered during the PNC dictatorship; and he equates the commentary with a political campaign. That is not propaganda. Aksharananda penned facts — that Indians were brutalised during the PNC dictatorship and that since the return of the PNC in May 2015, thousands of Indians (and Amerindians) have been fired. Those are not hateful remarks. Can Freddie provide evidence to counter these facts?
In the academic realm, Swami is a scholar, writing analyses on the state of Indians and on politics in Guyana. What is wrong with a writer telling readers to be proud of their cultural identity? David Hinds, Eric Phillips, Ogunseye and Kwayana did the same for Africans. Why hasn’t Freddie excoriated them? All Swami did was to denounce violence against Indians. Freddie has criticised Swami for complaining that Indians were fired from their jobs. Is Swami’s statement inaccurate? Didn’t Hinds and other Afro-nationalists made similar claims against PPP rule regarding Africans? Why didn’t Freddie also label their behaviour as propagandistic?
Swami is right to rebuke the headmistress for allowing a priest to sermonise in a public school, attacking Hindus and Hinduism. Everyone has criticised the headmistress. Why Freddie has not found that hate message obnoxious is beyond any rational thinker. Is it because the preacher attacks Indians that Freddie finds the attack okay? After all, Freddie did say he is not Indian.

Freddie wrote that PNC president Desmond Hoyte moved away “from ethnically based policies”. Really? So how does Freddie describe “mo fire and gyam fire” and the violence against Indians in 1992, 1997, 1998, 2001, etc? How does Freddie explain Hoyte draping Blackie’s coffin with the Guyana flag for Blackie’s violent attacks on Indians? How about Hoyte telling Indians he would render the country ungovernable, and his refusing to condemn robberies against Indians?
Freddie equates racist, misogynistic, anti-Hindu fulminations of a fringe character with a (factual) commentary of a swami in the newspaper. It is not surprising that Freddie equates the two. After all, Freddie’s mind is limited. Swami’s rational, sober comments don’t rise to the same level of the preacher’s racist ranting. Swami has not committed any sin; Freddie and the preacher did. Swami is not inciting ethnic anger, but rather calling on the Ministry of Education to investigate and end the attacks on Indians.

Will this correction of Freddie’s misapplication of facts and his spiteful invective against Swami and others help to reform his behaviour and make him a better person or accurate writer? I don’t think so, given that Freddie was corrected dozens of times before and he has refused to apologise. Freddie sees (alleged) wrongs done by Dev, Rhyaan, Swami, and others even when they are right; but he can’t see his own wrongs, like his Janus-faced attacks on others.

Yours truly,
Vishnu Bisram