Basdeo Panday (born May 25, 1933) was Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago from 1995 to 2001 and has served as Leader of the Opposition from 1976-1977, 1978-1986, 1989-1995 and 2001-present. He was first elected to Parliament in 1976 as the Member for Couva North, a position he continues to hold. He is the Chairman and former party leader of the Opposition United National Congress.

Born in Princes Town, Mr. Panday was educated at Presentation College, San Fernando, Lincoln's Inn, London (Law), London University (Economics) and London School of Dramatic Arts (Drama). Prior to studying in London he worked as a sugar cane weigher, a primary school teacher and a civil servant.

Upon his return to Trinidad he entered politics and ran unsuccessfully for Parliament as a candidate for the Workers and Farmers Party in 1966. It was as legal advisor to the All Trinidad Sugar and General Workers' Trade Union that he built his political base among sugar workers. He first entered Parliament as an Opposition Senator.

In 1976

He co-founded the National Alliance (with A.N.R. Robinson and Lloyd Best) to fight the 1981 elections, and later co-founded the National Alliance for Reconstruction with Robinson and Karl Hudson-Phillips. Following a convincing electoral victory in 1986 Panday fell out with Robinson and was later expelled from the party.

He then founded the Council for Love, Unity and Brotherhood (CLUB 88) which became the United National Congress. In the 1991 General Elections the UNC succeeded in displacing the NAR from the Indo-Trinidadian Heartland (newcomer Hulsie Bhaggan defeated political heavyweight Winston Dookeran for the Chaguanas seat), but the party only won 13 of 36 seats nationally. It improved this margin to 17 in the 1995 General Elections elections. With the support of the two seats held by Robinson and the NAR, Panday was appointed the country's first Indo-Trinidadian and the first Hindu Prime Minister.

Under the

Basdeo Panday is married to the former Oma Ramkissoon and has four daughters, two from his first marriage.

On May 31, 2005 Panday, together with his wife, Oma and former UNC MP Carlos John and businessman Ishwar Galbaransingh (chairman of Northern Construction Limited) were arrested on corruption charges. The State alleged that the Pandays had received TT$250,000 on December 30, 1998 from John and Galbaransingh in exchange for giving Northern Construction a construction contract for the Piarco Airport Development Project (PADP). Panday refused bail and chose to remain in prison. UNC Whip Ganga Singh described the arrests as "obviously politically-motivated", and compared it to the failure of the police to act on bribery allegations against five PNM MPs. Orlando Nagassar, Deputy Mayor of Chaguanas, called the arrest a "demonic act". In an editorial, the Trinidad Guardian pointed to the fact that a heavily armed SWAT team was sent to arrest Mrs. Panday as politicisation of the matter.

Panday, Mrs. Panday and John were placed on TT$750,000 bail, while Galbaransingh was placed on a $1,000,000. This has been called a punitive bail both by supporters of the UNC and by former Attorney General Ramesh Maharaj, a political opponent of Panday. On June 7 bail was reduced to TT$650,000. After meeting with a delegation from an inter-religious organisation, Panday accepted bail on June 8, after spending just over a week in jail.

In September, 2005, Panday nominated Winston Dookeran (St. Augustine M.P.) as his successor as Political Leader. Panday himself was nominated for the party Chairmanship. On October 2 2005 both Panday and Dookeran won their posts unopposed (see United National Congress).

In 2006, he was awarded the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman by the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs.

See also

• Pravasi Bharatiya Samman
• Pravasi Bharatiya Divas