The saga of Basdeo, Ramesh

In 1986 Basdeo Panday, political leader of the United National Congress (UNC) brought his close friend and colleague Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj into the political arena, offering him the party’s stronghold seat of Couva South. Maharaj, filling a spot previously filled by Kelvin Ramnath, who had fallen out with Panday, easily won the seat and entered Parliament as Opposition Chief Whip. It was to be the start of a decade-long political affiliation which saw Maharaj holding a position of influence within the party.

When the UNC, through a coalition agreement with the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR), gained enough parliamentary seats to form the government, Maharaj became Leader of Government Business and held off on accepting a Cabinet position for a few months. When he finally entered the Basdeo Panday Cabinet, it was in the powerful position of Attorney General, displacing Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who had to settle for the lesser portfolio of Minister of Legal Affairs.

The first signs of trouble in the Panday-Maharaj friendship emerged following the Deyalsingh Commission of Inquiry into the award of contracts for the controversial airports project.

According to party insiders, the tension between the two men was so great that Maharaj seriously considered bowing out of politics and not running for office in the 2000 elections. Although he eventually decided to contest the polls and, following the UNC victory, was appointed AG and Minister of Legal Affairs, it was clear that Maharaj and Panday no longer enjoyed a close friendship.

The rift between the two men widened in 2001 when they fielded rival slates in the UNC’s executive elections. Maharaj’s Team Unity slate won 21 of the 24 executive posts that were up for grabs.

While Maharaj himself was elected deputy political leader, this did not result in increased prestige for him in the government as Panday refused to allow him to act as Prime Minister during his absence from the country. The relationship deteriorated further when Maharaj, supported by Cabinet colleagues Trevor Sudama and Ralph Maraj, began pressing the Panday Administration to appoint a Commission of Inquiry into alleged corruption in government.

Panday responded by reducing Maharaj’s ministerial portfolio, then firing him as AG, a move that triggered a political crisis which sent the country back to the polls. Maharaj, with his colleagues Sudama and Maraj, contested the elections against the UNC under the National Team Unity (NTU) banner.

The UNC and the PNM ended up with 18 seats each. The ensuing election deadlock ended with the Patrick Manning-led People’s National Movement (PNM) being returned to government.

In the years since then, Panday and Maharaj have been political rivals with the latter working to establish his own political base through the NTU and more recently through a political pressure group.

In recent months, however, Maharaj has been coming out in support of Panday who has been under pressure from a faction within the party to step down as Opposition Leader and give way to new UNC political leader Winston Dookeran.

His official return to the UNC poll is expected today when he speaks at the party’s mass rally, sharing a political platform with Panday for the first time in about five years. Following are some public comments from the two men, made over the years of their political alliance, then rivalry, which illustrate the mercurial nature of their relationship.