Buxar beams with pride as PM hails ancestral ties in Trinidad & Tobago
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Modi, who was welcomed with a traditional Bhojpuri "chautaal" and served food on a "sohari" leaf, referred to the ancestral ties of Trinidad and Tobago's PM Kamla Persad-Bissessar with Bihar. "Her ancestors lived in Buxar. Kamla ji herself has visited there. People consider her a daughter of Bihar," Modi said.
Kamla traces her roots to Bhelupur village in Itarhi block of Buxar district, which she last visited in 2012.
"She is the daughter of my family and panchayat and made us proud. Hundreds of people from the state and district congratulated us when she became PM for the second time earlier this year," said Chunmun Choubey, mukhiya of Kukudha panchayat.
Kamla, now 73, earlier served as PM from 2010 to 2015. "She, along with her husband Gregory Bissessar and a 20-member delegation, visited Bhelupur in Jan 2012. Her grandfather, Ram Lakhan Mishra, son of Bhawani Swaroop Mishra, had migrated to Trinidad in 1889," Choubey told this newspaper over the phone.
Shambhu Nath Pandey, a resident of Brahmpur in Buxar, said, "My happiness knew no bounds when Modi addressed Kamla ji as the 'daughter of Bihar'. It is a matter of pride not only for Buxar or Bihar but for the entire country that someone with roots here is leading a govt abroad. As the PM rightly said, our people carry with them their civilisation and culture wherever they go."
Chandan Ram, a social activist from Dharampur near Bhelupur, recalled meeting her during her 2012 visit.
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"Nothing could bring more joy to the panchayat and to Buxar than PM Modi praising Kamla ji and Bihar on foreign soil. Before her visit, Bhelupur didn't even have a road. Now it has all the basic facilities," he said.
Industries minister Nitish Mishra added, "When PM Modi mentioned the glorious history and cultural legacy of Bihar from the land of Trinidad and Tobago, every Bihari's chest swelled with pride."
Health minister Mangal Pandey said the heritage of Bihar was not only India's pride but a treasure for the entire world.
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