Shas­tri Boodan

Gov­ern­ment plans to pump re­sources in­to the de­vel­op­ment of the Hin­du fes­ti­val of Ram­leela. This an­nounce­ment was made by Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar on Mon­day night when she ad­dressed In­di­an Ar­rival Day cel­e­bra­tions, host­ed by the Na­tion­al Coun­cil of In­di­an Cul­ture (NCIC), at the Di­vali Na­gar site, Ch­agua­nas. Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the Gov­ern­ment would sup­port the es­tab­lish­ment of a Ram­leela cen­tre at the Di­vali Na­gar in coali­tion with the NCIC.

She al­so said the Gov­ern­ment would li­aise with the Gov­ern­ment of In­dia to cre­ate what she called a cen­tre that would be "sec­ond-to-none" in the west. Per­sad-Bisses­sar al­so said T&T would host a re­gion­al col­lo­qui­um on the rights of women at the end of next month and an­oth­er ses­sion will fol­low by Sep­tem­ber. The PM, who is the cur­rent chair of the Com­mon­wealth, said one of her goals was to see the end of dis­crim­i­na­tion against women and girls.

She has en­list­ed the sup­port of promi­nent glob­al po­lit­i­cal fig­ures to as­sist in cham­pi­oning that cause. Among them are He­len Eliz­a­beth Clark, the Prime Min­is­ter of New Zealand; Cher­rie Blair, the wife of for­mer UK Prime Min­is­ter An­tho­ny Blair, La­dy Cather­ine Ash­ton, the Baroness of Up­hol­land and Ver&oa­cute;nica Michelle Bachelet Je­ria, the Pres­i­dent of Chile from 2006–2010. Speak­ing on in­den­ture­ship, the Prime Min­is­ter spoke of the jour­ney made by the in­den­tured. She said the recorders of his­to­ry may not have cho­sen to note the strug­gles of the in­den­tured work­ers but in­stead por­trayed them as the worst lot leav­ing In­dia for the plan­ta­tions in the west.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said brave were those who made the jour­ney. She said some were kid­napped, oth­ers were flee­ing pros­e­cu­tion of the British colo­nials and oth­ers sim­ply want­ed a new life. She said T&T's so­ci­ety was to­day bet­ter off be­cause of the con­tri­bu­tion made by all eth­nic class­es that ar­rived in T&T. The PM said while she may be of In­di­an ori­gin she was in­deed "Tri­ni to the bone". She said there was no more Moth­er In­dia, Moth­er Africa, Moth­er Chi­na and Moth­er Eu­rope but "grand­moth­er In­dia, grand­moth­er Africa..."