71 Facts About Basdeo Panday

Basdeo Panday was the first person of Indian descent along with being the first Hindu to hold the office of Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago.

Basdeo Panday was first elected to Parliament in 1976 as the Member for Couva North, Panday served as Leader of the Opposition four times between 1976 and 2010 and was a founding member of the United Labour Front, the National Alliance for Reconstruction, and the United National Congress.

Basdeo Panday served as leader of the ULF and UNC, and was President General of the All Trinidad Sugar and General Workers' Trade Union from 1973 to 1995.

Basdeo Panday was the 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, on 20 March 2007, that conviction was quashed by the Court of Appeal.

Basdeo Panday lost the party's internal elections on 24 January 2010, to deputy leader and future prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar.

Basdeo Panday was born on 25 May 1933, in the neighborhood of Coonook in St Julien Village, Princes Town, Trinidad and Tobago into an Indo-Trinidadian family to Kissoondaye and Harry "Chote" Sookchand Panday.

Basdeo Panday was the oldest of five children born to his parents and, through his father, he had two elder half-sisters and one younger half-sister.

Basdeo Panday attended New Grant Government School and St Julien Presbyterian School.

Basdeo Panday was later enrolled in Presentation College, San Fernando with help from his father's uncle Joseph Hardath Dube.

Basdeo Panday later worked as a sugarcane weigher at the Williamsville Estate near Princes Town for one crop season in 1951.

Basdeo Panday then worked as a primary school teacher at Seereram Memorial Vedic School in Montrose, Chaguanas, and at St Clement Vedic School at the St Clement Junction in St Madeleine.

Basdeo Panday was a civil servant at the San Fernando Magistrate's Court where he took notes for Magistrate Churchill Johnson, Magistrate Errol Roopnarine, and Magistrate Noor Mohamed Hassanali, who would go on to be the President of Trinidad and Tobago during Panday's term as prime minister.

In 1957, Basdeo Panday left Trinidad and Tobago to go to the United Kingdom to further his education.

Basdeo Panday obtained a diploma in drama from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1960 and a degree in law in 1962 from Inns of Court School of Law where he was a member of Lincoln's Inn and was called to the bar.

Basdeo Panday received a Bachelor of Science from the University of London as an external student in 1965, majoring in economics and minoring in political science.

Basdeo Panday appeared in several acting roles, including Nine Hours to Rama, The Winston Affair, and The Brigand of Kandahar.

Basdeo Panday staged an internal coup, becoming the union's President General and under him the union expanded to workers from a variety of industries and became the All Trinidad Sugar and General Workers' Trade Union.

On 8 February 1975, amidst the backdrop of labour struggles, Basdeo Panday met with fellow union leaders George Weekes and Raffique Shah.

Basdeo Panday won the Couva North seat in the 1976 general election, becoming an MP and official opposition leader.

The next year the party split into two factions and Basdeo Panday was ousted as party leader in favour of Shah.

Basdeo Panday was reinstated in 1978 after Winston Nanan, who previously supported Shah, defected to Panday and Shah resigned.

Basdeo Panday retained his seat in the 1981 general election.

Basdeo Panday was named Minister of External Affairs and International Trade.

The party soon fractured along racial lines; Basdeo Panday accused Robinson and the government of discrimination against Indians and autocratic rule.

Robinson reshuffled his cabinet in response, and Basdeo Panday found himself with reduced ministerial responsibilities.

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 and the UNC, led by Basdeo Panday, becoming official opposition.

Basdeo Panday led the UNC to victory in the 2000 election, being sworn in as prime minister for a second time.

In 2001, UNC MPs Ramesh Maharaj, Trevor Sudama, and Ralph Maraj alleged government corruption, pressuring Basdeo Panday to appoint a Commission of Inquiry; Basdeo Panday responded by firing Maharaj.

However, Basdeo Panday reneged on the agreement when Robinson appointed PNM leader Patrick Manning, finding his explanation for doing so unsatisfactory.

Basdeo Panday argued that Robinson did not act in accordance with the constitution by choosing Manning, as he did not hold the majority in parliament.

Basdeo Panday refused to accept the position of Leader of the Opposition in protest.

Secret investigations into Basdeo Panday began after the 2001 election, when the Central Authority and the Anti Corruption Bureau was set up by the PNM.

On 18 September 2002, Basdeo Panday was charged under section 27 of the Integrity in Public Life Act No 8 of 1987 for failing to declare the contents of a bank account in London for the years 1997,1998 and 1999.

Basdeo Panday did not consider the funds his own, and thus did not declare them.

Basdeo Panday blamed it on the PNM for trying to derail him weeks before the 2002 general election was to be held.

In September 2005, during the UNC internal elections, Basdeo Panday nominated Winston Dookeran as his successor as party leader.

In February 2006, Basdeo Panday fired senator Robin Montano, who opposed Maharaj's return to the party.

On 24 April 2006, Basdeo Panday was found guilty on all three counts he was charged with back in 2002, and sentenced to two years with hard labour and a TT$20,000 fine.

Basdeo Panday was denied bail, and ordered to pay the sum in the account "for each year he was charged for not making the declaration".

On 3 January 2007, Basdeo Panday was reinstated as leader of the UNC.

On 20 March 2007, the Court of Appeal overturned the conviction against Basdeo Panday, based on the possibility that he may not have received a fair trial.

From early 2009 Basdeo Panday was challenged for the leadership of the party by a small coalition of Opposition MPs led by the party's deputy political leader, Warner and Maharaj.

On 24 January 2010, Basdeo Panday lost his bid to be elected Political Leader of the UNC .

Basdeo Panday suffered a defeat at the hands of new Political Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar.

Basdeo Panday did not contest the post of chairman hence he no longer sits on the executive of the United National Congress.

Basdeo Panday did not participate in the general elections held on 24 May 2010 and hence his term as a Member of Parliament ended.

On 26 June 2012, Basdeo Panday was finally acquitted of all charges.

Basdeo Panday, being estranged from the UNC, became associated with the Patriotic Front and in 2020, a year after, on his birthday and first anniversary of the party, he said he would support his daughter's party in the 2020 Trinidad and Tobago general election and he even expressed interest in returning to politics given the situation of the country and said that he could no not sit by idly and watch the country continue on its current path.

In June 2020 Mickela Basdeo Panday announced that her father was the campaign manager of the Patriotic Front.

Basdeo Panday took the opportunity to correct perceived wrongs against the Indo-Trinidadian and Tobagonian community.

Shortly after beginning his first term as prime minister, Basdeo Panday granted the Shouter Baptists a national holiday.

Basdeo Panday decreed that Indian Arrival Day would forever be named as such, rather than simply "Arrival Day" after 1996.

Basdeo Panday was well known for his religious pluralism and often quoted from the scriptures of the different religions in Trinidad and Tobago.

Basdeo Panday was the subject of several critical and racist calypsos during his first year office, such as Cro Cro's Allyuh Look for Dat and Watchman's Mr Basdeo Panday Needs His Glasses.

Basdeo Panday struck back in 1997 by warning of guidelines for state-sponsored competitions to prevent "taxpayers money [being] used to divide the society, whether it be on racial or any other grounds".

Basdeo Panday was widely associated with the Trinidadian Hindustani word neemakharam, and popularized the term outside of the Indo-Trinidadian community.

Basdeo Panday used the word to describe his political opponents, including Winston Dookeran, Trevor Sudama, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Ramesh Maharaj, and other rival UNC members.

Basdeo Panday feuded with the media several times during his political career.

An incensed Basdeo Panday ordered a boycott of the paper, refusing to allow their reporters access to government information.

Basdeo Panday accused editor-in-chief Jones P Madiera of being a racist and called on his resignation.

Basdeo Panday reiterated his dissatisfaction with the press with his refusal to sign the Declaration of Chapultepec, a 1994 document affirming freedom of the press.

Basdeo Panday had four daughters: Niala, Mickela, Nicola, and Vastala.

Niala was born to his first wife Norma Basdeo Panday, who died in 1981.

Basdeo Panday's brother was fellow attorney and politician Subhas Panday.

In November 2019, Basdeo Panday was bestowed an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Trinidad and Tobago.

Basdeo Panday's brother-in-law was the late Indian classical- and chutney-singer Sam Boodram who was married to Panday's sister Cynthia Panday.

Basdeo Panday had a dog named Norman who was a stray that he took in.

Basdeo Panday died on 1 January 2024 in Jacksonville, Florida at the age of 90 surrounded by his family after being hospitalized for a few weeks.

Basdeo Panday's death was announced on social media by his daughter Mickela Panday.

Basdeo Panday's body was flown back to Trinidad and Tobago for a state funeral.