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.