Thaindian News

By Paras Ramoutar
Port-of-Spain, April 17 (IANS) Basdeo Panday, who became the first Indian-origin Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, used to say that if you see a lion and himself fighting, feel sorry for the lion. But now the “lion” has formally bowed out of politics after a career spanning nearly three and a half decades.

Panday, a lawyer by profession, was prime minister 1995-2001, and eventually through his own follies surrendered the position. He stalked the political landscape of the country from 1976 to the dissolution of the ninth parliament Thursday.

After arbitrarily refusing to hold his United National Congress’ (UNC) internal elections for several years, he finally conceded and the polls were held in January.

Former attorney general Kamla Persad Bissessar won the leadership vote by a landslide, relegating Panday to the backroom of politics.

Panday Tuesday failed to meet his party’s deadline to file in nomination papers for the general elections which must be held by July 9. Prime Minister Patrick Manning called the elections about 30 months before they were constitutionally due by October 2012.

Panday’s political career has been a very chequered one. In 1966, he came to visit his ailing mother from London, before leaving to study for a PhD in Economics in India on a Commonwealth scholarship.

He was invited by local politicians to stay on and fight for the masses as the then government led by Eric Williams was fast becoming too autocratic.

Panday fought the 1966 elections under the banner of the Workers and Farmers Party but lost his deposit. He then fought and gained leadership, after a very bitter fight, of the Trinidad and Tobago Sugar Workers’ Union.

In 1976, he formed the United Labour Front and won 10 of the 36 parliamentary seats, and became Leader of the Opposition. In 1986, he co-founded the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) and that party trounced the ruling People’s National Movement after 30 years in government.

Panday became minister of external affairs and international trade and acted as prime minister on several occasions in the absence of then prime minister A.N.R.Robinson.

He was instrumental in signing a Memorandum of Understanding for the much-delayed Mahatma Gandhi Cultural Centre with then Indian minister of foreign affairs, N.D.Tiwari. It has not been built till now, but is housed in temporary shelters in Caroni.

Panday broke with NAR in 1988 and later formed CLUB’88 which came to be known as the United National Congress.

In the general elections in 1995, his UNC won 17 seats. He joined with NAR’s two seats and became the first Indian-origin prime minister.

His victory came in the year when the Indian diaspora celebrated its 150th anniversary since the arrival of the first set of East Indians from India who had come from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar to work on the sugar and agricultural production. Panday’s forefathers were among the 148,000 East Indians who came to Trinidad and Tobago between 1845 and 1917.

In 2006, Panday was convicted for failing to declare a bank account in London and imprisoned. The conviction has been quashed and a hearing is awaited. He is currently facing several charges on corruption emanating from the $300-billion Piarco International Airport.

Panday has visited India on several occasions, and was the recipient of the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman in 2005.

Panday was married twice which brought him four daughters, one of whom, Mikela is also involved in politics and like her father, is now an outgoing member of parliament.

(Paras Ramoutar can be contacted at paras.r@ians.in)