WHEN Arun Kumar Sahu was first told of his appointment as Indian High Commissioner to Trinidad and Tobago, he knew very little about the country.
He had never been to T&T before and only three names rang a bell: Eric Williams, the first Prime Minister of T&T; Nobel laureate author VS Naipaul and cricket legend Brian Lara.
But after spending the past two years and ten months in T&T, he now feels an intimate connection to the country and its people.
Sahu expressed his love for Trinidad and Tobago during an interview with Express last week as he prepared to leave to take up his new post in India’s Ministry of External Affairs. He was scheduled to leave the country on Saturday.
Although he was eager to return to his homeland and excited about his new appointment, Sahu said he will miss T&T and is proud of what he was able to achieve while here.
“I came here completely clueless,” he admitted during the interview at the High Commission’s office in Victoria Avenue, Port of Spain.
“But I’m coming back more educated about this region, society and country.”
He said the people of T&T are unlike any other people he has ever met.
“They are good, they have compassion, they are direct and they are good-natured people. They communicate with you with all their emotion and heart, so you connect with them. It is very difficult to find such pure hearted people in the geography around the world. That’s what really hit me and gave me the energy to do what I could do.”
Book
Sahu said he was so moved by his experiences in T&T that he wanted the people of India to know more about the country.
This was why he wrote a book titled Trinidad and Tobago: A Diplomat’s Cultural Expedition, hoping to share his new knowledge of T&T with his homeland.
“I wanted to give Indian readers a sense of where Trinidad and Tobago is and bring the association of the Caribbean people, its history and culture beyond cricket. Everyone knows cricket. Everyone knows Brian Lara.
But I also wanted people in India, especially the youth, to know the history, heritage and culture and our connection with Trinidad and Tobago, how strong it is and how old it is,” he said.
Sahu said that India has a strong bond with T&T and the world.
“There is no corner of the world where you don’t have two things: potatoes and cashews,” he laughed.
But this connection has become even stronger during the last two years of the Covid-19 pandemic, he noted.
India played an integral role in managing the pandemic, not only in T&T but across the world through the provision of Covid-19 vaccines. The Serum Institute of India was responsible for the production of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, of which T&T received a generous donation at the height of the pandemic when access to vaccines was limited.
Sahu said he is proud of the role his country has played in fighting the virus.
He said he believed this was when the world realized what India, as a developing country, had to offer and showed that India, in times of crisis, would thrive for the greater good.
Proudest achievements
Sahu said T&T handled the pandemic quite well.
“Trinidad and Tobago was less affected at first when many other countries were suffering. The second wave was more severe for many countries. But a pandemic of this nature, you cannot predict. Even today we do not know what stage the pandemic is in or if it will pass. There’s really nothing you can do about it.”
But despite his tenure coinciding with the pandemic and all the challenges that came with it, Sahu said he was still able to achieve a lot in T&T.
He cited the completion of the Mahatma Gandhi Center and his work with youth and businesses as two of his proudest achievements.
“But for the pandemic, we could have done more for young people,” he lamented.
“We did everything possible in virtual mode. In the pandemic, every month we had a business event in virtual mode. The pandemic taught me how to quickly adapt to technologies and we realized that by using technology, we could connect with more people and different stakeholders in different time zones and bring the T&T business community to know what is going on and what are the possibilities “
Series of vaccines
However, all was not smooth sailing for Sahu in T&T. In March 2021, Sahu was criticized by Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley after countries around the region had received gifts of Covid-19 vaccines from India while T&T had received none. Rowley blamed Sahu, saying he had failed to communicate the availability of Covid-19 vaccine donations from India to the country and that T&T had not been invited to participate in any vaccine donation programme.
He said then that Sahu had created a difficult situation and that T&T would not be begging for vaccines.
Sahu then responded by saying, “I don’t think it is in the pale of diplomatic courtesy to personally attack a resident High Commissioner.”
The dispute was eventually resolved with India donating an initial 40,000 vaccines to T&T.
Reflecting on the matter last week, Sahu said it was water under the bridge.
“In times of crisis you can have different problems, but in the end the idea was to bring vaccines. So as long as I manage to get them, I’m the happiest person. Vaccines came and were used by people, people were vaccinated so it is in the past.”
But Sahu raised eyebrows again in April 2022 when he was photographed with opposition leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar at the unveiling of the Mahatma Gandhi Statue at Manmohansingh Park in Cedros. Questions were raised in government circles as to why only Persad-Bissessar was present at the event, held in celebration of Indian Arrival Day, and Rowley did not attend.
Sahu however said that he did not organize the event and had no record of who was invited as he was only a guest.
He said there was no bad blood between him and the government.
“Since the first day of my arrival here, I have been warmly welcomed by the Government of T&T. Whenever I have approached them about something, they have tried to do their best. And every time they approached me for something I tried to do my best. I have a very cordial relationship with the government, the people, various organizations and civil society,” he said.
Sahu shied away from giving his opinions on race relations in T&T when asked about the recent spat between Persad-Bissessar and Housing Minister Camille Robinson-Regis over the origins of Indian and African names.
He said that while he had seen the reports, he did not feel it was appropriate for a diplomat to comment on an internal matter.
He said, however, that no society is perfect.
“Societies must work together for mutual prosperity. At the end of the day, the development and growth of people is what matters,” he said.
The future
As for the future relationship between T&T and India, Sahu said he hopes to see the creation of a youth exchange program so that T&T youth can visit India and vice versa.
“I would like to see more Caribbean and Trinidadian youth be part of what is happening in India and more Indian youth be part of what is happening in the Caribbean. Because the future is for them. They will be the movers and shakers of the world,” he said.
He said India has progressed significantly due to advances in science and technology over the past 75 years and there are many T&T youths who could benefit from a youth exchange programme.
He noted that T&T citizens still require a visa to travel to India and this is something the two governments can discuss how to facilitate as there are no direct flights between the two countries.
“But if we have the will, we will find a way,” he added.
Sahu said he hopes to visit T&T again in the future as he will miss the beaches and the food, especially the duas, aloo pies and saheena.
