Women advocates chastise Charandass
“Haul off stage” statement
– call for public apology
“Disrespectful”, “abusive” and “irresponsible” were some of the adjectives used to describe Alliance for Change (AFC) Member of Parliament (MP) Charandass Persaud’s assault on fellow MP Dr Vindhya Persaud, when he expressed his desire to “haul her off” stage.
AFC MP Charandass Persaud
Karen Desouza
The AFC parliamentarian deemed it fit to write a Letter to the Editor, attacking and threatening the Hindu Leader for merely expressing her views regarding her religion.
“Dr Vindhya Persaud so disgusted me that I felt like hauling (her) off the stage,” penned the AFC leader under a letter which purported to be calling for a reconciliation of Hindu-Guyanese who were in disagreement over the Diwali date.
His well-thought-out sentiments generated much upheaval among women rights activists and women leaders who demanded the AFC MP make a public apology to Dr Persaud and also to all Guyanese women.
Chairperson of the Gender and Equality Commission Indra Chanderpal
Charandass’s statement prompted much disapproval and condemnation from a number of women’s rights supporters.
People’s Progressive Party Member of Parliament Priya Manickchand took to Facebook expressing her disgust over Charandass’s comments.
“This is outrageous and must be condemned by all, irrespective of how you voted. This is the kind of brutish thing that leads to the interpersonal and gender based violence we see. You don’t like what the woman said and your first reaction is that you should physically attack her…‘haul her off the stage’…by her hair maybe? By her sari? After you have kicked her a few times?” Manickchand posted.
PPP/C MP Dr Vindhya Persaud
In further expressing her shock, Manickchand questioned, “How could a leader of the country and a representative of Government feel comfortable, not only entertaining such thoughts, but taking the time to send it to a newspaper for publication?”
She further added she is ashamed to call him a friend. “Apologise Charran…now…and unreservedly,” she stated.
Also lashing out at the blatant attack on Dr Persaud is PPP/C MP Africo Selman, who also called on Charandass to publicly apologise for his insensitive attack.
“It’s an attack on all Guyanese women, you know, not only Guyanese women but all women in general,” Selman stated.
The former A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance for Change (APNU/AFC) MP also demanded an explanation for the deafening silence from the government benches over this matter.
“Is he speaking as an AFC member or at the level of the coalition government? I wonder if this is the view of the coalition or the view of the Party. If it is the view of the coalition, I call on President David Granger to come out and make a statement condemning what was said by that MP,” Selman insisted.
She also called on Social Protection Ministers Volda Lawrence and Simona Broomes to come out publicly and express their views on this assault on a fellow women rights advocate.
PPP/C MP Gillian Burton-Persaud
“All women should condemn it. His action, as a leader, is saying to the ordinary man that it is right to be an abuser, that it is right to abuse women,” she said.
Additionally, another PPP/C MP Gillian Burton-Persaud expressed her utter dissatisfaction with the comments made by the AFC leader. She lamented the fact that all the rights activities and women organisations have not uttered a single condemnation on his actions.
“I therefore call upon all those who preach, seek, endure and participate in the upholding of these fundamental rights, on Civil Society, on all Rights Organizations and Activists and more so, on the government to denounce these unwarranted acts of verbal abuse on our female political and religious leaders and indeed all women in our society,” she stated.
Burton-Persaud pointed out that the demand for a public apology is not asking too much since these remarks were proudly laid in the public domain without reservation and remorse and the evidence is there to prove same.
Irresponsible
Moreover, Chairperson of the Gender and Equality Commission Indra Chanderpaul said the AFC MP’s behaviour is totally irresponsible.
“He ought to have known better. His behaviour is uncalled for and it is disrespectful to Dr Persaud,” Chanderpaul expressed.
She highlighted that Dr Persaud is not only a leading advocate for women across Guyana, but is also President of one of the largest Hindu organisations in the country and the AFC MP’s attack was completely uncalled for.
“What he is seeking to do, he is denying her freedom to choose, her freedom to belief and freedom to express her beliefs, and he didn’t have to go to the function, he could have chosen not to be there,” she stated, expressing the absurdity in the situation.
Not the most violent
Karren Desouza, another women’s rights activist, expressed that the AFC parliamentarian’s behaviour is not the most “violent” or “agonizing” situation from leaders of Guyana.
“This is not the most disrespectful thing I find leaders of the country doing,” she stated.
Nonetheless, she agreed that his actions were irresponsible and offensive towards women.
“I agree that his expression is unfortunate; it is an unfortunate way to express his frustration,” Desouza stated.
She added that Guyanese should continue their efforts against all violence and work towards building a better country.
“We would like to be living in a world where frustrations do not lead to a certain kind of crisis… I think we should all keep on doing the work in building a nonviolent society,” she stated.
Meanwhile, it must be noted this incident is not the first time Charandass Persaud was publicly disrespectful towards women in Guyana. In 2013, he ridiculed Dr Vishalya “Artie” Sharma for being “so fat, she could probably not fit in the front seat of her jeep” when he was arguing she could not administer the New Amsterdam Hospital. (devinas@guyanatimesgy.com)
