Remnants of a fallen empire

A controversy about the date of Diwali is raging. The dispute is between two Hindu groups – the Viraat Sabha and the Hindu Dharmic Sabha.   The Diwali date saga has obfuscated a political dimension to this confrontation. Even if the Dharmic Sabha’s submission of November 11 is correct, this controversy is about the fall of the power of the PPP. The Dharmic Sabha is the organization founded by high-ranking PPP leader, Reepu Daman Persaud.  It was Mr. Persaud’s organization that determined the date of Diwali since the PPP came to power in 1992. Mr. Persaud was made the Minister of Agriculture. At every Diwali rally sponsored by the Dharmic Sabha, PPP leaders including President Cheddi Jagan, would be showcased with speeches by PPP leaders. At every Diwali rally, Mr. Persaud would use the occasion to highlight the PPP Government. On two occasions, Mr. Persaud used his address to the mammoth rally to call for a third term for then president, Bharrat Jagdeo. For the past two years, the Dharmic Sabha has used the Arthur Chung Convention Centre to have its pre-Diwali bash. I remember I got caught in the huge traffic jam outside the Centre last year because Colin Haynes of the AFC had his birthday party that very night. He lives right opposite the Centre. When an oligarchic regime that ruled a county for decades is thrown out, its beneficiaries find it hard to adjust to the loss of power. This explains why there wasn’t a rush of resignations by political appointees after the PPP fell. Many candidates on the PPP election list that held public service jobs had to be removed, of which the most conspicuous were the Guysuco Head and Guyoil CEO. I don’t know if Madam Bibi Shadick has resigned as Pro-chancellor of the University of Guyana. The head of the Dharmic Sabha is a PPP frontbencher in Parliament. She is Dr. Vindhya Persaud, the daughter of Mr. Reepu Daman Persaud. To date the PPP is the only party in Guyana that has a head of a religious organization that is involved in politics and is a sitting member of Parliament, and a head of a trade union who sits in Parliament. The latter is Mr. Komal Chand who has been the head of the sugar union for more than three decades and is a PPP Parliamentarian for more than thirty years. One wonders if the time has not arrived when Guyana must make that separation. Religious preachers should serve their parishioners and leave parliamentary politics to politicians. It has to be an uncomfortable situation where you are tending to parishioners who come from all types of ideological orientation but you are one of the leaders of a political party. Should you not rise above narrow partisan politics? If I were a churchgoer, I would feel uncomfortable as a PNC member receiving the word of God from my priest or pandit or imam who is a leader of the PPP and vice versa. The sugar workers by now ought to question the achievements of Mr. Komal Chand. For the 22 years the PPP has been in power, where and how did the lives of sugar workers improve? What was Mr. Chand doing all these years? How did sugar come to be facing a bleak future? Where was the union? The life of the sugar industry is facing hard questions. Can Guysuco survive? Do sugar workers expect other sections of society to subsidize the industry by billions of dollars each year? Should they not seek new leadership? Times are changing in Guyana and sugar workers should change with it. The PPP has lost its hegemony. Even if the Dharmic Sabha’s date is corrected and is accepted by the Government, it is bound by its political influence in the state system. Prior to 2015, no other Hindu organization dared to compete with it. The state would not have recognized that other entity. I was told that when the cultural arm of the Dharmic Sabha, the Kendra in Prashad Nagar holds its annual cultural extravaganza, the Guyana Revenue Authority doesn’t send a customs officer. At every concert of foreign artist where there is a charge at the gate, there must be a customs officer. Maybe my information is incorrect but it would help if the GRA can state explicitly if when the Kendra held those concerts whereby artists came from India and performed and there was a gate charge, if a GRA officer was there. In fairness to the Kendra I was also informed that when a certain entertainment company brings down American singers, the GRA officer is never present. That entertainment company is in big trouble at the moment.