Basdeo Panday, who served as Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago from 1995 to 2001, has died. He was 90 years old.
His death was confirmed by his daughter, Mickela Panday, who issued a statement on social media.
“With deep sorrow, we would like to share that our loving husband and father, Basdeo Panday passed away on 1st January 2024, surrounded by his family. In life and death he was a fighter. He passed with his boots on, keeping everybody around him on their toes with his wit and humour,” she wrote on Facebook.
“He will live on in all of us, remembered as a wonderful husband, father, grandfather, leader, and friend. He was an inspiration to his family and everybody that knew him. We will continue to celebrate his life and treasure the time we were able to spend with him.”
Decades-long political career
The 90-year-old Panday has a decades-long political career which began in 1965. He was the first person of Indian descent along with being the first Hindu to hold the office of Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago.
He was first elected to Parliament in 1976 as the Member of Couva North. Panday served as Leader of the Opposition five times between 1976 and 2010 and was a founding member of political parties: the United Labour Front (ULF), the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR), and the United National Congress (UNC). He served as leader of the ULF and UNC, and was President General of the All Trinidad Sugar and General Workers’ Trade Union.
He was the former chairman and party leader of the United National Congress.
In 2006, Panday was convicted of failing to declare a bank account in London and imprisoned; however, a year later, that conviction was quashed by the Court of Appeal. He decided to resign as chairman of the United National Congress, but the party’s executive refused to accept his resignation.
He lost the party’s internal elections in 2010, to deputy leader and now former prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar.
Outside of politics
Outside of politics, Panday was also a lawyer, economist, and an actor. He has cameos in several British films and television shows, notably Nine Hours to Rama (1963) and The Winston Affair Indian (1964).
As the first Indo-Trinidadian prime minister in Trinidad, Panday took the opportunity to correct perceived wrongs against the Indo-Trinidadian and Tobagonian communities.
Shortly after beginning his first term as prime minister, Panday granted the Shouter Baptists a national holiday. Spiritual Baptist faith is a religion created by persons of African ancestry in the plantations they came to in the former British West Indies countries. His political sponsorship contributed to the legitimization of the religion in the public’s eye.
In 2005, he was awarded the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman (the highest Indian award for overseas Indians) by the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs.
Basdeo Panday is survived by his wife Oma Panday and four daughters: Niala, Mickela, Nicola, and Vastala.
