We at Hindu Council of Australia are being contacted by various Hindus asking if it is true that Hindu Council is apologizing to Khalistani elements. This is untrue and is only a rumor to agitate Hindu community further. We ask all Australian Hindus to retain their calmness and not get agitated by such false and provocative rumors. The purpose of rumor mongers seems to be to further disturb peace and harmony, which we will not permit.
We wish to clarify to our community that Hindu Council wishes to maintain communal harmony in Australia. We strongly support the prime minister’s view that overseas issues should not be allowed to disturb peace and harmony in Australia. For this reason, we have made various efforts to diffuse the situation and have taken following actions so far :
1. After the “Meet and Greet event with Liberal leaders” event of last Saturday, we issued a clarification stating that we have no animosity towards Sikh community and treat them as our brothers and sisters.
2. Further inflammatory material against Hindus is being circulated since today morning.
3. Hindu Council team had a meeting with the Ministry of Multi-culture today. We have handed over the offensive material to them and asked their help to defend Hindus against these unwarranted attacks. We have also asked them to help diffuse the tension being created by mischievous elements who don’t like to see peaceful relations between Hindus and Sikhs.
4. Our efforts to diffuse the situation have not succeeded. We are confident that the department will act swiftly, stop further insults and offense against Hindus and restore communal harmony.
