Asian Voice - Saturday 16th June 2007

Art&Culture

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13

Kallidais comments have been used out of context: HFB

Ramesh Kallidai, Secretary General of the Hindu Forum of Britain, was recently portrayed in an article published in the Evening Standard on June 11, as a fascist Hindu. Headlined Revealed: the rise and rise of a fundamentalist father the story articulated rhetorics and accusations that inadverdently created a false image of Hindus in the UK. In a letter to the Editor of the Evening Standard, Ishwer Tailor, President of the Hindu Forum of Britain expressed his firm dissappointment that although the PR of the HFB had been contacted on Sunday for comments, they had not been given the time they had asked for to revert, before the story was published. Indeed, it was rather unprofessional on the part of the Evening Standard to allow for only a few hours to respond to rather serious allegations against Mr. Kallidai in particular and the Hindu Forum of Britain in general. Mr. Kallidai, a leading Hindu figure in the UK who had devoted a lot of time to bring the community to the mainstream of Government plannings was indicated as a community leader with a Nazi influence. However, the fact of the matter remains that Mr. Kallidai has always spoken against racism, xenophobia and terrorism of any kind, and has made several statements in the past asking for communities to forget their differences and come together together to tackle these issues. The article published in the ES had also indicated statements attributed to him in the Metro with regards to forced conversions of Hindus and Sikhs to Islam. Mr. Kallidai maintained that the statements were wrongly attributed to him. The point the HFB made was that, while having meeting around the country, officers have observed a high level of resentment from leaders of Hindu communities about percieved aggressive conversion techniques. With regards to attacks on Hindu temples, Mr. Kallidais spokesperson stated that there was considerable evidence of attacks on the Hindu temples across UK. The HFB had listed only few (six) as typical examples. In recent information gathered by the National Council of Hindu Temples, UK, it suggests 28 recorded incidents in the 1990s of attacks on Hindu temples. Many other incidents affecting Hindu temples go unreported for various reasons.

My wish is to contribute to the community the best way I can

I Nandini Bagchi Ragasudha Vinjamuri, currently a lecturer at the Oxford House College, has a vast experience in Travel and Tourism industry in India. Her role in dealing with travel related services during the Afro Asian games recieved an acknowledgement from Mr. Chandrababu Naidu, then then Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. Sudha, as she is fondly known, has closely interacted with international airlines like The Emirates, Srilankan Airlines and Qatar Airways to pera joint tourism programme. However, she is a multi dimensional personanlity and apart from being actively invoved with the travel industry, she is a trained classical dancer and cultural commentator. She had made a number of dance presentations all over the UK and is currently involved with the Sangha Sandesh , a publication of the Swayam Sewak Sangh in the UK. Her dance performances in the UK include ones at Birmingham Balaji Temple, the Maharashtra Maratha Mandal in London and she has taught Indian Dance in the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan in Manchester. She is also listed in the Seer, the London based online directory of artistes which is closely associated with the Arts Council of England and Arts policy maker. When asked what inspires her, Sudha humbly acknowledges her parents and her Gurus whose guidance she says is invaluable. It is because of their blessings that she has achieved all her success. She said: My wish is to serve and contribute to the community the best way I can, impart to others what I know, and learn what I dont know.

Ragasudha Vinjamuri

suade them to bring in more flights into Andhra Pradesh and work towards

Sikhs: We will fight to stop forced conversion

I Dhiren Katwa Hordes of angry Sikhs marched through central Birmingham last Saturday afternoon demanding an end to Muslim extremism. Up to a hundred protesters, chanting Enough is enough and Muslim extremistsout, out, out! held up traffic as they marched from Handsworth to the West Midlands Police headquarters at Lloyd House. Protesters were monitored by a heavy police presence as they demanded an end to alleged forced conversions of Sikh girls to Islam. This cannot be allowed to happen to Sikh girls, or Christian or Hindu girls, said one protester who refused to be named. We are against extremism in any way, he added. We want the police to start doing something about this, said the protester. Were demanding to go inside and talk to someone high up. Group leaders negotiated with police if they could meet a senior police officer while four leading members of the group were allowed inside the building after much discussion. While they were inside, many of the protesters sat down, drank water and chanted. The saga began when an 18-year-old Amrit Dhari (baptised) Sikh girl, a student at Sutton Coldfield College, went missing from her West Bromwich home on May 21. An aggravated burglary in Erdington, a popular student area of Birmingham, lead to identification of a local mosque caretaker who had provided shelter for this girl. Ranjeet Singh, of the British Organisation of Sikh Students, said: There are cases of aggressive techniques, of drugging and of rape, of the man taking photos and blackmailing the girls into converting. They know that by dishonouring the girls, they will make their families disown them. There have been about 120 cases in Luton and the South East. Its a problem that has been going on for a while, but a lot of people are reluctant to come forward and theres not much being done.