Dr. Basdeo Panday, a Trinidadian lawyer, politician, trade unionist, economist, actor, and civil servant, served as the fifth prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago from 1995 to 2001. He was the first person of Indian descent and the first Hindu to hold the office of prime minister.
Panday and the other expelled ministers from the National Alliance for Reconstruction, NAR founded the Caucus for Love, Unity, and Brotherhood (CLUB ’88), which later became the United National Congress (UNC). Economic decline, austerity, racial tensions, and, above all, the failed but impactful 1990 coup attempt led to the NAR being swept out of power in the 1991 general election. The People’s National Movement, PNM, led by Patrick Manning, formed the government, and the UNC, led by Panday, became the opposition.
Panday’s political moment came in 1995 when Manning called an early election, which ended with the PNM and UNC holding 17 seats each, and the NAR holding two. The UNC and NAR then entered a coalition bringing the UNC into power and making Panday the first Indo-Trinidadian prime minister.
To solidify his mandate, Panday called a new election in 2000, which the UNC won outright, and Panday was sworn in as prime minister for a second time.
Following charges of corruption and the firing of three UNC MPs, Panday was forced to call another general election in 2001. The election resulted in the historical 18-18 tie between the UNC and PNM. The deadlock was resolved when President A.N.R. Robinson appointed Manning as the prime minister. In protest, Panday opposed the decision and refused to accept the position of Leader of the Opposition.
In the ensuing 2002 general election, the PNM won a clear and undisputed majority. Panday accepted his third term as Leader of the Opposition—a position he held until 2006 when he was convicted of failing to declare a bank account in London.
On March 20, 2007, that conviction was quashed by the Court of Appeal. On May 1, he resigned as chairman of the United National Congress, but the party’s executive refused to accept his resignation. He lost the party’s internal election on January 24, 2010, to deputy leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar.
In 2005, Dr. Basdeo Panday was awarded the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman by the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs.
