In a statement, the IAC also rejected a statement by Mr. Ravi Dev, leader of the Rise, Organise And Rebuild (ROAR) party that Indo-Guyanese have an existential fear of being wiped out.

“Such a sweeping statement is unworthy of one who considers himself the natural leader of the Indo-Guyanese as it degenerates all Indo-Guyanese, insinuating that all are paranoid cowards,” the Committee said.

It also rejected a statement by Swami Aksharananda that Indian docility goes back to the days of indentureship, saying scholarly works of historians, most notably Dr. Basdeo Mangru, Dr. Tyran Ramnarine, Dr. Dale Bisnauth, Dr. Clem Seecharran, Mr. Tota Mangar and Mr. Phulander Khandhai completely discredit it as baseless.

The IAC said Dev and Aksharananda contradict each other on the issue of docility, since Dev claims it to be caused by the Government, while Aksharananda attributes it to the indentureship period of the 19th Century, long before the ruling People’s Progressive Party/Civic took office.

“The IAC accuses Ravi Dev and others of his ilk of propagating these outrageous myths of Indo-Guyanese docility and fear of Afro-Guyanese.

“The IAC acknowledges that Indo-Guyanese persons feel that the disciplined forces generally are not sympathetic to their concerns but attributes this largely to the ethnic composition and historical role of the disciplined forces rather than to outright racial hostility,” the statement said.

It added that it recognises that there are historical, religious, cultural, economic, occupational, geographical and political divisions that separate Indo-Guyanese from Afro-Guyanese.