Shas­tri Boodan

Free­lance Con­trib­u­tor

Na­tion­al Coun­cil of In­di­an Cul­ture pres­i­dent Su­ru­jdeo Man­ga­roo has re­newed a call for the Pi­ar­co In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port to be re­named in ho­n­our of the late for­mer prime min­is­ter Bas­deo Pan­day.

Speak­ing at NCIC’s In­di­an Ar­rival Day cel­e­bra­tions in Ch­agua­nas on Sat­ur­day, Man­ga­roo de­scribed Pan­day, the coun­try’s fifth prime min­is­ter and first of East In­di­an de­scent, as a trans­for­ma­tive na­tion­al leader whose con­tri­bu­tions de­served last­ing recog­ni­tion.

“Mr Pan­day was a states­man of pro­found vi­sion. He cham­pi­oned the recog­ni­tion of In­di­an Ar­rival Day, widened op­por­tu­ni­ty, strength­ened na­tion­al con­fi­dence and ad­vanced our coun­try’s de­vel­op­ment,” Man­ga­roo said.

“To place his name up­on our na­tion’s prin­ci­pal gate­way—what he him­self dubbed ‘The Gate­way of the Amer­i­c­as’—would be a fit­ting trib­ute to a leader whose ser­vice left an in­deli­ble mark on our his­to­ry.”

He said such a move would al­so in­spire younger gen­er­a­tions by demon­strat­ing that pub­lic ser­vice and sac­ri­fice are val­ued and re­mem­bered. He al­so urged young peo­ple to take pride in their her­itage and learn from the ex­pe­ri­ences of their fore­bears.

“Iden­ti­ty is not in­her­it­ed by chance—it is cul­ti­vat­ed through mem­o­ry, ed­u­ca­tion, pride and re­spon­si­bil­i­ty,” he said.