Fiji Sun

Raj Questions Prasad For Condemning Temple Talk

- JYOTI PRATIBHA Edited by Mohammed Zulfikar

Director Human Rights and Anti-Discrimina­tion Commission Ashwin Raj has questioned National Federation Party leader Biman Prasad’s statement regarding Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimaram­a and Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed Khaiyum condemning sacrilege. Mr Raj said: “It is a matter of profound irony that Biman Prasad has issued a statement against the Prime Minister and the Attorney-General for speaking out against hate speeches, racial and religious intoleranc­e in the wake of the desecratio­n of Hindu temples.

“He has castigated the PM and Attorney-General’s call for Fijians to stand up to racial and religious intoleranc­e as a “despicable and shameful act of mixing religion and politics”.

The irony of course stems from the fact that when the story was first published by the Fiji Sun, the Leader of the NFP was quick to retweet on December 20, 2017, that the desecratio­n of temples was about “scaring Indo-Fijian voters back to the arms of the FijiFirst Party”.

“I wonder who is mixing religion with politics.

“Can he substantia­te this claim that he so approvingl­y retweeted? “His public rhetoric and private political designs on the social media wreaks of hypocrisy.

“I call on the people of Fiji to speak out against racial and religious intoleranc­e and inflammato­ry language that has the potential to incite and incriminat­e. “It’s a shame that instead of joining the campaign to stop racial and religious intoleranc­e, he has once again decided to launch an attack for political point scoring except that in his self-righteousn­ess, he has exposed his own hypocrisy,” he said.

Feedback: jyotip@fijisun.com.fj

 ??  ?? National Federation Party leader Biman Prasad
National Federation Party leader Biman Prasad
 ??  ?? Director Human Rights and Anti-Discrimina­tion Commission Ashwin Raj.
Director Human Rights and Anti-Discrimina­tion Commission Ashwin Raj.

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