Hot Like Pepper - Investigate Sat and the SDMS: Ramnath - Politics

Politics : Investigate Sat and the SDMS: Ramnath

2007/11/1 12:20:00

The UNC Alliance launched a strong attack Wednesday night on the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha and its general secretary Satnarine Maharaj with one candidate calling for an audit of the organization's financial dealings.

Satnarine Maharaj, General Secretary of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha in Trinidad and Tobago is facing strong criticism from members of his own organization for using the religious organization's resoruces to campaign for the Congress of the People (COP).

Speaking at a meeting in Couva, Central Trinidad, Kelvin Ramnath asked why the government has failed to check on the Maha Sabha's school building program to determine how state funds are disbursed.

Ramnath, who is the incumbent member of parliament for Couva South, suggested that it is because of a conspiracy between the governing People's National Movement (PNM) and the Congress of the People (COP.

A Maha Sabha executive member, Devant Maharaj, is running against Ramnath for the COP in the general election on Nov. 5.

Ramnath accused the Maha Sabha of "shamlessly" supporting the COP to divide the vote, hoping to allow the PNM to win.

But he told thousands of cheering supporters that "interlopers like Devant" can't win because nobody but the UNC-A can win Couva South.

And he told them to remember that a vote for the COP is a vote for the PNM.

That was the theme that every speaker addressed at the meeting. They urged COP members who had been turned against the UNC Alliance to return home because the election is not about personalities but about ridding the country of a corrupt and incompetent government.

There are reports that many COP members have been responding to the message from the UNC-A.

And former Attorney General Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj confirmed that it is happening in his Tabaquite constituency.

He said he visited what was described a COP stonghold, with COP posters all over the place. "And you know what? When I left 90 per cent of them gone UNC-A," he said.

Former Education Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar returned to the Maha Sabha issue and said the Hindu organization was ungrateful because under her watch the UNC government built five secondary schools for the religious organization.

And the chairman of the meeting, Dr Suruj Rambachan, also went after the Maha Sabha accusing its general secratary, Sat Maharaj, of being a political opportunist.

He said Maharaj openly campaigned for the ruling People's National Movement (PNM) against Basdeo Panday and the UNC in 1995, yet it was Panday who did most for the Maha sabha.

And on a more personal note he said Maharaj wanted to be cozy with the Panday gvoernment for a while only because Panday appointed Maharaj's daughter to the Senate and gave her a junior ministerial posting in the Ministry of Health.

But the strongest attack against the Maha Sabha came from one of its own executive members.

Pandit Seereram Mahraj told UNC-A supporters it is only a small clique within the organization that is supporting the COP and accused them of working to break up the UNC-A to let the PNM win the election.

Maharaj said the Maha Sabha's attempts to intimdate priests and teachers is not working. He said many teachers have decided to vote for the UNC-A because they know it is the right thing to do, adding that Pandits across the country are doing the same.