Overview
- Police increased security and worked with community volunteers, allowing the Tauranga Nagar Kirtan to conclude without major incident.
- Protesters linked to Destiny Church and the True Patriots of NZ performed a Māori haka and displayed a banner reading “This is New Zealand not India.”
- Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki posted video of the protest, calling it “peaceful defiance” and using the chant “Whose streets? Kiwi streets.”
- The Tauranga confrontation follows a December episode in South Auckland where True Patriots members blocked a road and performed a haka before police cleared the route.
- SGPC president Harjinder Singh Dhami condemned the opposition to the procession, and Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal urged External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar to raise the matter with New Zealand.