Shas­tri Boodan

Free­lance Cor­re­spon­dent

The Na­tion­al Coun­cil of In­di­an Cul­ture (NCIC) is prepar­ing to launch a na­tion­al ini­tia­tive aimed at fos­ter­ing greater racial un­der­stand­ing and uni­ty in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

The an­nounce­ment was made by NCIC pres­i­dent Dr Su­ru­jdeo Man­ga­roo dur­ing a tree-plant­i­ng ex­er­cise at the NCIC Na­gar in Ch­agua­nas yes­ter­day. The event was held as a con­tin­u­a­tion of ac­tiv­i­ties com­mem­o­rat­ing World En­vi­ron­ment Day.

Man­ga­roo said the or­gan­i­sa­tion’s de­ci­sion to pur­sue a na­tion­al uni­ty pro­gramme was in­flu­enced by pub­lic re­ac­tions to his re­cent pro­pos­al that the coun­try’s main air­port—Pi­ar­co In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port—be re­named in ho­n­our of for­mer prime min­is­ter Bas­deo Pan­day.

Ac­cord­ing to Man­ga­roo, com­ments post­ed on so­cial me­dia in re­sponse to the pro­pos­al re­vealed what he de­scribed as “deep racial di­vi­sions” with­in the coun­try.

“I saw both pos­i­tive and neg­a­tive com­ments, but what be­came clear from the dis­cus­sions was that our na­tion re­mains di­vid­ed along racial lines,” he said.

“We at the NCIC are pre­pared to do what­ev­er it takes to help bring this coun­try to­geth­er.”

The sug­ges­tion did not on­ly spark com­men­tary on­line.

Crim­i­nal Bar As­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent Is­rael Khan al­so con­demned the sug­ges­tion in a let­ter to ed­i­tor.

In it, Khan said he was against the idea be­cause it would al­so erase the name, and with it the his­to­ry of the coun­try’s in­dige­nous peo­ple.

“And my main and re­al­ly on­ly rea­son for adamant­ly protest­ing the re­nam­ing of our air­port is very sim­ple—WE WILL HAVE TO RE­MOVE THE NAME PI­AR­CO.

“And I, in this re­gard, sup­port and en­dorse the Grand Chief of the First Peo­ples Sov­er­eign Na­tions in Trinidad and To­ba­go, Er­ic Lewis, that re­mov­ing the name ‘Pi­ar­co’ is an in­sult and a sign of dis­re­spect for the na­tion’s in­dige­nous peo­ples. And I add a non-ac­knowl­edge­ment of their his­toric ex­is­tence and mem­o­ry, which goes back to over 8,000 years.”

Man­ga­roo stressed that the is­sue was not con­fined to any one eth­nic group and called for a col­lec­tive ef­fort to pro­mote na­tion­al uni­ty.

“We are Trinida­di­ans and To­bag­o­ni­ans. We live to­geth­er, we love each oth­er and we em­brace each oth­er, but be­hind the scenes, racial com­ments con­tin­ue to be made on all sides. We need to do some­thing about that,” he said.

The NCIC pres­i­dent said dis­cus­sions on the pro­posed ini­tia­tive would be­gin at the or­gan­i­sa­tion’s next ex­ec­u­tive meet­ing.

While de­tails have not yet been fi­nalised, he in­di­cat­ed that the NCIC would draw on the ex­per­tise of its lead­er­ship team, in­clud­ing first vice pres­i­dent, Pro­fes­sor Arvind Singh, to de­vel­op a strat­e­gy for en­cour­ag­ing di­a­logue and un­der­stand­ing among cit­i­zens.

Man­ga­roo not­ed that the NCIC has a long his­to­ry of bring­ing to­geth­er peo­ple of dif­fer­ent back­grounds through its an­nu­al Di­vali cel­e­bra­tions and cul­tur­al pro­grammes.

“We have done it through Di­vali Na­gar by bring­ing peo­ple of all races, cul­tures and re­li­gions to­geth­er. We want to ex­pand that spir­it be­yond the fes­ti­val and through­out the year,” he said.

The an­nounce­ment came dur­ing a com­mu­ni­ty tree-plant­i­ng ex­er­cise in­volv­ing mem­bers of the NCIC, the Vedic Mis­sion, Se­wa TT and oth­er groups. The ac­tiv­i­ty formed part of what Man­ga­roo de­scribed as a wider “fruc­ti­fi­ca­tion project” aimed at en­cour­ag­ing cit­i­zens to plant fruit trees and veg­eta­bles at their homes.

He said the ini­tia­tive was in­tend­ed not on­ly to beau­ti­fy com­mu­ni­ties but al­so to pro­mote food se­cu­ri­ty and en­vi­ron­men­tal re­spon­si­bil­i­ty.

“We are en­joy­ing the fruits plant­ed by pre­vi­ous gen­er­a­tions. We have a re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to do the same for fu­ture gen­er­a­tions,” Man­ga­roo said.

The NCIC said fur­ther de­tails on both the na­tion­al uni­ty pro­gramme and the agri­cul­tur­al ini­tia­tive are ex­pect­ed to be an­nounced in the com­ing week.