Jesse Ramdeo

Se­nior Re­porter

jesse.ramdeo@cnc3.co.tt

In­dia’s Prime Min­is­ter Naren­dra Mo­di touched down at Pi­ar­co In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port yes­ter­day af­ter­noon to a grand, colour­ful and cer­e­mo­ni­al wel­come, mark­ing the start of his his­toric two-day vis­it to Trinidad and To­ba­go.

The vis­it, part of Mo­di’s five-na­tion diplo­mat­ic tour, saw the In­di­an leader greet­ed with full State ho­n­ours and a spec­tac­u­lar cul­tur­al show­case that blend­ed the sounds and rhythms of In­dia with the vi­brant en­er­gy of T&T.

Mo­di’s of­fi­cial air­craft, Air In­dia One, land­ed at ap­prox­i­mate­ly 3.29 pm un­der height­ened se­cu­ri­ty mea­sures.

As the air­craft door opened, Prime Min­is­ter Mo­di emerged, of­fer­ing a brief na­maste be­fore de­scend­ing the steps. Mo­di was then greet­ed by Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and se­nior mem­bers of her Cab­i­net. He was pre­sent­ed with a bou­quet from Per­sad-Bisses­sar.

Three young boys al­so made pre­sen­ta­tions to the vis­it­ing prime min­is­ter.

A red car­pet be­neath Mo­di’s feet led to a full cer­e­mo­ni­al guard of ho­n­our as the an­thems of In­dia and T&T echoed across the tar­mac.

What fol­lowed was a strik­ing cel­e­bra­tion of cul­tur­al uni­ty.

The tar­mac trans­formed in­to a liv­ing stage, show­cas­ing the deep his­tor­i­cal and cul­tur­al ties be­tween the two na­tions.

The mu­sic from tra­di­tion­al tas­sa drum­mers re­ver­ber­at­ed through the air, joined by the melod­ic sounds of African drum­mers, cre­at­ing a unique fu­sion of In­do-Caribbean rhythm.

Clas­si­cal In­di­an dancers in vi­brant In­di­an wear moved in sync along­side moko jumbies.

A fes­tive crowd of on­look­ers at Pi­ar­co’s south ter­mi­nal, with mem­bers of the di­as­po­ra gath­ered, wav­ing flags and cap­tur­ing the his­toric mo­ment.

Tight se­cu­ri­ty sur­round­ed the air­port perime­ter, with rerout­ed traf­fic and ear­ly school clo­sures across the coun­try to fa­cil­i­tate the State vis­it.

Law en­force­ment and De­fence Force per­son­nel formed a mul­ti-agency cor­don around the air­port and along Mo­di’s trav­el route to the cap­i­tal city of Port-of-Spain.

Mo­di’s trip to T&T fol­lows stops in Ghana, Namib­ia, Ar­genti­na, and Brazil.

Dur­ing his stay, Prime Min­is­ter Mo­di is ex­pect­ed to re­ceive the coun­try’s high­est na­tion­al award, the Or­der of the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go (ORTT), in recog­ni­tion of his con­tri­bu­tions to in­ter­na­tion­al diplo­ma­cy and strength­en­ing ties be­tween In­dia and the Caribbean.

He is al­so sched­uled to ad­dress a spe­cial sit­ting of Par­lia­ment, meet with Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo, and at­tend a ma­jor di­as­po­ra en­gage­ment in Cou­va.

Sev­er­al bi­lat­er­al agree­ments in ar­eas such as health, en­er­gy, trade, and dig­i­tal co­op­er­a­tion are ex­pect­ed to be signed dur­ing the vis­it.

While In­do-Trinida­di­an groups have cel­e­brat­ed the vis­it as a sig­nif­i­cant mo­ment of re­con­nec­tion with an­ces­tral roots, some or­gan­i­sa­tions have voiced con­cerns. The An­ju­man Sun­nat-ul-Ja­maat As­so­ci­a­tion (AS­JA), and oth­er Mus­lim groups have called for trans­paren­cy in dis­cus­sions around hu­man rights and re­li­gious free­doms in In­dia.