Richard Lord

Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al of the Sanatan Dhar­ma Ma­ha Sab­ha Sat Ma­haraj is up­set over the award of this coun­try's high­est na­tion­al award, the Or­der of the Re­pub­lic of T&T to for­mer gov­ern­ment min­is­ter Ka­malud­din Mo­hammed and for­mer sen­ate pres­i­dent Dr Wahid Ali.

"I am ques­tion­ing the de­ci­sion to give this coun­try's high­est na­tion­al award to Ka­mal and Wahid Ali," Ma­haraj said in an in­ter­view yes­ter­day. Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar an­nounced at the week­end the names of the four re­cip­i­ents of the Or­der of the Re­pub­lic of T&T. The oth­er two were for­mer at­tor­ney gen­er­al Karl Hud­son-Phillips and the late spir­i­tu­al leader of the Sanatan Dhar­ma Ma­ha Sab­ha, Pun­dit Kr­ish­na Ma­haraj.

The awards to Ma­haraj and Ali are to be pre­sent­ed posthu­mous­ly. Mean­while, Ma­haraj said he saw no rea­son for Mo­hammed and Ali to be giv­en the awards as they nev­er stood up to ei­ther crit­i­cise the PNM Gov­ern­ment or have the for­mer high­est na­tion­al award–the Trin­i­ty Cross–which he said was a Chris­t­ian sym­bol, changed. "Ka­mal and Wahid Ali nev­er stood up with us to ef­fect a change in the na­tion­al award from the Trin­i­ty Cross. They nev­er said any­thing bad about the PNM. They are PNM," he in­sist­ed.

Ma­haraj was, how­ev­er, high in praise of the Gov­ern­ment for "show­ing that democ­ra­cy is alive and well in T&T" by pre­sent­ing the Or­der of T&T to Pun­dit Ma­haraj. He said the de­ci­sion was ful­ly ac­cept­ed by the Ma­ha Sab­ha. Mean­while, Ma­haraj is ex­pect­ed to be pre­sent­ed with this coun­try's sec­ond high­est na­tion­al award at Queen's Hall, Port-of-Spain, this evening. Ma­haraj said he was hap­py to be giv­en a na­tion­al award.