The Director of Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Commission, Ashwin Raj says Ben Padarath needs to wake up and have a hard look at our social spaces where children from diverse backgrounds are flourishing while Padarath says he is establishing the facts regarding Raj and who pressurized him to utter such senseless words.
This is regarding the post where Padarath had put up a photo of the Head Boy of a Muslim High School and questioned why the boy was allowed to grow a beard while boys in all other schools throughout Fiji are made to be clean shaven daily.
Ashwin Raj says every Fijian child irrespective of race, religion, gender or any other marker of difference has the right to education and freedom of religion and this cannot be taken away by forces of hatred, bigotry and intolerance.
Raj says those who are intent on sowing seeds of division based on racial differences think that they can exploit this by pitting our children against each other.
He adds there is no turning back and he hopes that those politicians that Padarath has tagged in the post can remind him of this changing reality even if they do not have the audacity to speak out against him.
