Deokienanan Sharma of the National Council of Indian Culture (NCIC) has questioned the method of selection of recipients for national awards. Sharma said that the selection process did not seem to be 'transparent... as there seems to be discrimination in the selection of awardees'.

He said that the NCIC had nominated two prominent Indians - Kamaluddin Mohammed, former deputy prime minister, and Ackbar Khan - and both of them were rejected.

Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha (SDMS) secretary general Satnarayan Maharaj said that the national awards could no longer be considered national.

Only nine Indo-Trinidadians out of 65 have been recipients of the country's highest national award, the Trinity Cross, now designated as the Order of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. The National Award system was introduced in 1969, some seven years after Trinidad and Tobago gained its Independence from Britian Aug 31, 1962.

Leader of Congress of the People Winston Dookeran has called for 'a new approach reflective of the multicultural and multi-ethnic properties of the national state of T&T to be installed for National Awards among other state systems.'

Nearly 145,000 people from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar came here between 1845 and 1917 to work on sugar and cocoa plantations.