Shastri Boodan

Former prime minister Basdeo Panday was honoured on Saturday by the Tobago Circuit of the National Evangelical Spiritual Baptist Faith under the patronage of His Grace Archbishop Glenroy Jack.

Panday told the gathering at the Rovanels Resort and Conference Centre that he has not given up hope to see a nation united regardless of ethnic and cultural differences.

So that we can become the great nation that God intended us to be. he said.

Panday said the name Spiritual Shouter Baptist is unique to T&T as it is the only country to have a public holiday in its honour.

The former PM also gave an historical account of the decades of struggles of the Shouter Baptist movement to gain recognition.

He said his administration 1996-2001 also gave recognition to persons of the Orisha faith through the passing of the Orisha Marriage Act that legalised Orisha marriages in T&T.

He said the Orishas were treated in the same manner as the Hindus and Muslims under the British colonial government whose aim was to divide and rule the nation for the sake of power.

Panday later told Guardian Media that T&T is no closer to achieving the unity he dreams of because the constitution is causing the differences with people. He said unless constitutional reform takes place discrimination would always continue.

Panday also said he has no problem with a name change of the Piarco International Airport once the facility is operated with efficiently.

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Panday honoured in Tobago by Spiritual Baptist - Trinidad Guardian