Sascha Wil­son

Se­nior Re­porter

sascha.wil­son@guardian.co.tt

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has vowed to con­tin­ue go­ing to war against the so­cial ills fac­ing the na­tion, pledg­ing to con­front cor­rup­tion, crime, and ne­glect with the weapons of law, truth, courage, and con­science.

Speak­ing at her an­nu­al Di­vali cel­e­bra­tion at her con­stituen­cy of­fice in Pe­nal, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said true lead­er­ship is not about priv­i­lege or pow­er but about pro­tec­tion and ser­vice to the peo­ple.

She said her po­lit­i­cal jour­ney mir­rors the sto­ry of Ram and Si­ta, de­scrib­ing her re­turn to lead­er­ship as a “home­com­ing of light” af­ter years in Op­po­si­tion, which she com­pared to a pe­ri­od of ex­ile.

“Like Ram and Si­ta, we too have known ex­ile. Our na­tion en­dured years of greed and ar­ro­gance, of in­dif­fer­ence to the poor, of in­sti­tu­tions crum­bling in­to si­lence. But we nev­er aban­doned faith. We be­lieved that truth, though chained, would one day walk free,” she said.

She said her ten years in Op­po­si­tion were hard and lone­ly but sa­cred and filled with pur­pose.

“I went to war for you, not with anger but with de­vo­tion; not for priv­i­lege but for the peo­ple; and not for pow­er but for prin­ci­ple. I fought in Par­lia­ment and out­side of Par­lia­ment. We fought in and out, on the streets, every­where, in the si­lence of sleep­less nights, be­liev­ing al­ways that our light would re­turn.”

De­spite calls by her de­trac­tors to “give up,” she said she heard the peo­ple’s voic­es — “the farm­ers, the teach­ers, ven­dors, moth­ers hold­ing fam­i­lies to­geth­er, whis­per­ing, ‘Kam­la, keep fight­ing. Keep fight­ing and the light will re­turn.’”

She said her re­turn to of­fice was not her vic­to­ry but “our Di­vali of re­turn, our home­com­ing of light.”

Per­sad-Bisses­sar, who was al­so cel­e­brat­ing 30 years of ser­vice as the par­lia­men­tary rep­re­sen­ta­tive for Siparia, said her flame was first lit as a child toil­ing with her grand­moth­er in the mar­ket op­po­site her con­stituen­cy of­fice, where she learned that lead­er­ship be­gins with ser­vice.

Hav­ing gone to war pre­vi­ous­ly for T&T, Per­sad-Bisses­sar vowed to “al­ways go to war for this coun­try.”

“Not with hate but with the weapons of law, with the weapons of truth, with the weapons of courage, and with the weapons of con­science. I will go to war against cor­rup­tion that steals from our chil­dren. I will go to war against crime that stalks our homes. I will go to war against ne­glect which mocks our poor and aban­dons our youth. You see, lead­er­ship is not priv­i­lege; it is pro­tec­tion. And love, re­al love, nev­er walks away when its peo­ple are in dan­ger. Love fights. Love en­dures. Love leads.”

Through In­di­an High Com­mis­sion­er to T&T Pradeep Singh Ra­jpuro­hit, who was in at­ten­dance, she ex­tend­ed grat­i­tude to Prime Min­is­ter of In­dia Shri Naren­dra Mo­di and his gov­ern­ment.

From the pros­thet­ic limb camp to new col­lab­o­ra­tions in trade, dig­i­tal in­no­va­tion, re­new­able en­er­gy, ed­u­ca­tion, and cul­tur­al ex­change, she said Mo­di con­tin­ues to re­mind the world that true diplo­ma­cy is mea­sured not in treaties but in the lives it trans­forms.

She al­so an­nounced that the pros­thet­ic limb camp will be lo­cat­ed at Clarke Road, with­in her con­stituen­cy.

High Com­mis­sion­er Ra­jpuro­hit said this year the coun­try cel­e­brat­ed two Di­valis — the first was when Per­sad-Bisses­sar was elect­ed to of­fice. He said they are work­ing on var­i­ous an­nounce­ments made by the In­di­an Prime Min­is­ter when he vis­it­ed T&T.

Dur­ing his vis­it, T&T and In­dia for­malised 15 new agree­ments span­ning health, ed­u­ca­tion, agri­cul­ture, dig­i­tal ser­vices, trade, and cul­ture. He urged mem­bers of the sixth gen­er­a­tion of the In­di­an di­as­po­ra to ap­ply for the Over­seas Cit­i­zen­ship of In­dia (OCI) cards.

Pri­or to her ad­dress, Per­sad-Bisses­sar par­tic­i­pat­ed in Lak­sh­mi pu­ja and then a Di­vali pro­ces­sion from Clarke Road junc­tion to her of­fice. Joined by se­nior mem­bers of her Cab­i­net, dig­ni­taries, sup­port­ers, and di­vine char­ac­ters from the Ra­mayana, along with scores of oth­er par­tic­i­pants, she led the half-mile pro­ces­sion, which was ac­com­pa­nied by a mu­sic truck and three oth­er beau­ti­ful­ly dec­o­rat­ed vans spray­ing gold-coloured con­fet­ti.