PM’s UNC message criticised for deepening racial divisions

Akash Sama­roo

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s spe­cial In­de­pen­dence Day mes­sage to Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) sup­port­ers is draw­ing crit­i­cism from promi­nent voic­es with­in the In­do-Trinida­di­an and Hin­du com­mu­ni­ties, with for­mer In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tor Suni­ty Ma­haraj and Sanatan Dhar­ma Ma­ha Sab­ha (SDMS) Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al Vi­jay Ma­haraj warn­ing that her rhetoric risks deep­en­ing racial di­vi­sions.

Suni­ty Ma­haraj, a po­lit­i­cal com­men­ta­tor, went fur­ther, say­ing many In­do-Trinida­di­ans were em­bar­rassed by the mes­sage and did not iden­ti­fy with what she de­scribed as its “mean-spirit­ed­ness” and di­vi­sive­ness.