The Sanatan Dhar­ma Ma­ha Sab­ha (SDMS) is ve­he­ment­ly con­demn­ing the re­cent act of des­e­cra­tion at the Ram­leela Cel­e­bra­tion Grounds in Tarou­ba Road, Mara­bel­la.

In a state­ment the SDMS said,

“Such in­ci­dents, which un­der­mine the sanc­ti­ty of our re­li­gious and cul­tur­al prac­tices, are deeply dis­tress­ing and un­ac­cept­able.”

It said the Ram­leela is a sa­cred event in Hin­duism, sig­ni­fy­ing the tri­umph of good over evil, and should be re­spect­ed as such.

“We are deeply sad­dened by the act of burn­ing the ef­fi­gy of Ra­vana, which is an in­te­gral part of the cul­mi­na­tion of our Ram­leela cel­e­bra­tions. We ex­press our sol­i­dar­i­ty with the Tarou­ba Ram­leela and Phag­wa Com­mit­tee, and we of­fer our sup­port to the af­fect­ed com­mu­ni­ty dur­ing this try­ing time,” the or­gan­i­sa­tion stat­ed.

The SDMS said in light of this in­ci­dent, it has urged the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) to con­sid­er en­hanc­ing se­cu­ri­ty mea­sures and in­creas­ing po­lice pres­ence at places of wor­ship and re­li­gious fes­ti­vals, in­clud­ing the on­go­ing Ram­leela cel­e­bra­tions and up­com­ing Di­wali cel­e­bra­tions.

“Safe­ty and se­cu­ri­ty are para­mount in en­sur­ing that all in­di­vid­u­als can prac­tice their faith with­out fear or in­tim­i­da­tion. Re­li­gious and cul­tur­al di­ver­si­ty is a cor­ner­stone of Trinidad and To­ba­go, and it is im­per­a­tive that all re­li­gious and cul­tur­al events are re­spect­ed and pro­tect­ed,” it said.

The Hin­du body al­so not­ed that acts of van­dal­ism and dis­re­spect to­wards cul­tur­al and re­li­gious events “not on­ly hurt the af­fect­ed com­mu­ni­ties but al­so harm the rich ta­pes­try of our na­tion”.

The SDMS said it re­mained com­mit­ted to pro­mot­ing re­li­gious har­mo­ny, un­der­stand­ing, and uni­ty with­in our di­verse so­ci­ety.

“We call up­on all com­mu­ni­ties to stand to­geth­er against acts of in­tol­er­ance and work to­wards a more in­clu­sive and har­mo­nious Trinidad and To­ba­go,” it said.