Former People’s Partnership minister Vasant Bharath believes it is imperative that the Government honour Basdeo Panday’s legacy by naming something after him.
He even suggested the Piarco International Airport, which led to several legal matters against Panday, be named after the former prime minister.
“I think it’s important that we honour his life and his legacy, as do other countries and with their heroes and their stalwarts. Because it’s so easy to forget. And we can be a very fickle society, seeking instant gratification,” he said.
Speaking on CNC3’s Morning Brew yesterday, Bharath said the Piarco International Airport which was a project under the Panday administration is an obvious candidate despite the contention that surrounded its construction.
“It needs to be something, whether it’s the airport—and I know there are issues surrounding that airport—but there needs to be something that when you arrive in Trinidad and Tobago whether you’re a foreigner or whether you’re returning home, that allows us to remember what Panday did,” Bharath said.
The new Piarco Airport was built during Panday’s administration and was completed in 2000. However, it has been fraught with allegations of corruption and bid rigging since inception, launching an over 20-year legal battle costing the State millions.
In March 2023, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Roger Gaspard, SC, discontinued the protracted prosecution of Panday, his wife Oma, former government minister Carlos John and businessman Ishwar Galbaransingh for corruption related to the construction of the Piarco International Airport.
The DPP explained back then his decision to discontinue the case was based on his office’s low chances of securing convictions.
A recent suggestion to rename the Piarco International Airport after the country’s first Prime Minister Dr Eric Williams was met with great divide. Previous suggestions to rename the airport were also challenged by Santa Rosa First Peoples Community who felt the name “Piarco” should be kept since it is one of the few indigenous names remaining in the country.
Bharath said ultimately it was for the Government to decide but he believes it is important that people are reminded of the late prime minister’s contribution to this country.
Bharath said Panday was a champion of the poor and was sincerely concerned about issues of discrimination and other forms of social injustice.
“His base support was from those people that he helped and who he lifted out of poverty and the record shows that it was not a lot of money in quantum, but in terms of percentage increase, he got salary increases of up to 1,000 per cent,” Bharath said as he added, Panday gave them a new lease on life.
“What that did for those people is it essentially lifted them out of poverty and gave them some level of hope. It allowed their children, for example, to move from being barefooted to being able to get slippers and then to being able to get shoes; it allowed those children who were being kept at home to now be sent to school.”
Bharath said Panday often scoffed at being referred to as the first Indian prime minister saying the only Indian prime minister was the Prime Minister of India. Bharath told the Morning Brew that Panday believed in Trinidad and Tobago’s racial harmony and that was reflected on the political platform and his personal life.
He added Panday, and not even his father a politician himself, was able to get him to join politics.
“I think it’s a very sad day, of course, for Trinidad and Tobago, and the Caribbean, and I think the world as a whole, to have lost a man who really championed the needs of others, and he put those needs, far above the needs of his own and those of his family,” he said.