Maha Sabha boss: Leave Jack, fire Douglas

General secretary of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha (SDMS) Sat Maharaj believes that Jack Warner is not the man to be axed from the People’s Partnership Government. Maharaj said Multiculturalism Minister Dr Lincoln Douglas, whom he described as a “total misfit,” should be fired instead. Maharaj spoke to reporters at the SDMS Primary School Chowtal Sammelan 2013 at the Tunapuna Hindu School, yesterday, where 43 schools vied for the title.

“I have been listening to the Minister of Multiculturalism. If anybody should be fired in the Government, he should be fired, not Jack Warner. He does not seem to understand what the culture of Trinidad and Tobago entails.” Last year, Maharaj said, he met Douglas at the Prime Minister’s residence at a Divali celebration. “I told him I am going to launch an attack on you because you are stopping the funding of the churches and he said to me he does not believe that the State should fund churches.”

Maharaj said the church provided sanctuary for the people of a country when they were under domestic and political pressures. Recently, Maharaj said, Douglas advocated that 50 per cent of the time for every radio station should be devoted to local production. “He expect a Hindu radio station to run soca, chutney and calypso for 50 per cent of the time? He must be mad. Totally out of place. So there is no freedom of expression and diversity in the land.”