Pain experienced by the Hindu community in the UK could have been avoided if the Government had listened to its own scientific advice according to Brent Councillor Krupesh Hirani.
Earlier last month, documents revealed that the Government’s Sage committee of scientific experts urged ministers to impose a circuit breaker lockdown on 21 September. These calls were not followed by the Government and instead they have had to impose a longer lockdown this month. If the original advice had been followed, Covid-19 would not have spread as much and we would be out of the ‘circuit break’ period by now. If timed with half-term holidays, the impact on children and schools would have also been less severe.
Diwali is the largest celebration in the Hindu, Sikh and Jain calendars and over the festive period and the Hindu New Year, Temples celebrate the festival of lights and families meet and greet each other to welcome the New Year. This year Diwali will be on Saturday 14th November with the New Year commencing on Sunday 15th November. It would have already been impacted by Coronavirus restrictions but the later lockdown has impacted plans further.
The later lockdown has meant that Diwali celebrations have been severely impacted and that families will not be able to see each other on this auspicious day. All of this was avoidable if more shorter-term restrictions had been brought in earlier.
Cllr Hirani said,
“It is a shame that we will not be able to celebrate key festivals in the same way but I applaud local Temples and organisations for making sure that people can still celebrate in a Covid secure way using technology. I urge people to follow the law and guidance.”
Cllr Hirani has been working with organisations across Brent to help coordinate and support their plans for festivities and also work with them to promote public health guidance on Covid-19.