Kali­fa Clyne

Au­gust has been deemed the Month of Free­dom by the In­di­an High Com­mis­sion as it cel­e­brates both In­dia's 65th In­de­pen­dence an­niver­sary on Au­gust 15 and T&T's 50th an­niver­sary on Au­gust 31. At a press con­fer­ence on Wednes­day, the High Com­mis­sion re­vealed a se­ries of ac­tiv­i­ties planned to cel­e­brate a re­la­tion­ship be­tween In­dia and T&T?that start­ed even be­fore in­de­pen­dence. "On the very day that T&T?be­came an in­de­pen­dent na­tion, the In­di­an Gov­ern­ment had sent a rep­re­sen­ta­tive to be­gin diplo­mat­ic re­la­tions with the coun­try," said In­di­an High Com­mis­sion­er to T&T, Malay Mishra. He added that the re­la­tion­ship be­tween T&T?and In­dia had deep­ened over the years and had strength­ened even fur­ther af­ter Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar's state vis­it to the coun­try in Jan­u­ary.

He said bi­lat­er­al trade be­tween the na­tions had in­creased since Jan­u­ary and In­di­an in­vestors were show­ing an in­creased in­ter­est in T&T. "As I speak, there are two In­di­an in­vestors in T&T, in Port-of-Spain, look­ing at the ar­eas of ed­u­ca­tion and tech­nol­o­gy. Many doors have opened re­gard­ing bi­lat­er­al co-op­er­a­tion, and we have added tra­di­tion­al med­i­cine and cre­ative in­dus­tries to the ar­eas where we are see­ing a lot of in­ter­est in this coun­try," said Mishra. He said af­ter the vis­it, a Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies group had vis­it­ed and toured In­dia and sev­er­al in­vestors had ex­pressed in­ter­est in the coun­try. "In­dia's as­so­ci­a­tion with T&T for the 50th an­niver­sary of In­de­pen­dence and In­dia's 65th In­de­pen­dence an­niver­sary are com­ing with­in a span of two weeks apart and it is im­por­tant that we com­mem­o­rate the free­dom days of both coun­tries," said Mishra.

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Min­is­ter Ja­mal Mo­hammed, who was present at Wednes­day's press con­fer­ence, said both T&T and In­dia shared com­mon goals and ideals in terms of as­pi­ra­tion to free­dom and jus­tice. He said the Gov­ern­ment gave its full sup­port to the com­mis­sion's ac­tiv­i­ties. The com­mis­sion has planned a con­fer­ence and ex­hi­bi­tion ti­tled In­her­i­tance, In­no­va­tion and Con­ti­nu­ity, 50 years of In­dia-T&T Re­la­tions, which will fea­ture pre­sen­ta­tions on T&T and In­dia's shared his­to­ry post-in­de­pen­dence. The con­fer­ence will take place on Au­gust 17 and 18 at the JFK Lec­ture The­atre and Au­di­to­ri­um, Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies, St Au­gus­tine. The High Com­mis­sion has al­so planned a vis­it from an In­di­an clas­si­cal in­stru­men­tal group as part of an on­go­ing cul­tur­al ex­change pro­gramme. Hilton Trinidad has al­so part­nered with In­dia to host a Taste of In­dia. Two In­di­an chefs will be host­ed in Trinidad to pre­pare In­di­an del­i­ca­cies.