PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – The Anjuman Sunnat-ul-Jamaat Association (ASJA) is expressing its “measured yet profound reservations” regarding the visit of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Trinidad and Tobago.
Modi is due to arrive here on Thursday at the invitation of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, following her victory in the general election on April 28.
In a statement, ASJA said while it respects the rights of sovereign countries to pursue diplomatic engagement, “we believe it is necessary to critically examine Mr. Modi’s political legacy, which includes the 2002 Gujarat riots, the discriminatory Citizenship Amendment Act…”.
The Muslim organization said that Mod has “repeatedly employed divisive rhetoric” in referring to Muslims as “infiltrators in public addresses, thereby fueling Islamophobic sentiment and legitimizing anti-Muslim violence.
ASJA said that these actions, taken together, have raised significant concerns among human rights organizations, legal scholars, and interfaith communities regarding the erosion of pluralism and constitutional protections in India.
“ASJA therefore urges the public to approach this visit with thoughtful discernment and calls on the Muslim community to respond with principled composure, religious freedom, and human dignity through peaceful and constructive channels”.
The government has announced that non-essential public services and schools in Trinidad will close early on Wednesday to accommodate Modi’s visit.
On Thursday, he will pay a courtesy call on President Christine Kangaloo at the President’s House in St. Ann’s, where he is expected to be presented with this country’s highest award, the Order of the Republic of TT (ORTT).
He will later address an assembly of both Houses of Parliament and engage in an exchange of memorandum of understandings MOUs with the government, as well as attend a tree-planting ceremony.
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