Panday calls for Gandhi style civil disobedience in Trinidad & Tobago

Former Trinidad and Tobago Prime 
Minister Mr Basdeo Panday

Friday, November 7, 2003

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad: Former Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago and Leader of the Opposition, Basdeo Panday, has called for civil disobedience in the form pursued by Mahatma Gandhi and Dr Martin Luther King Jr to put an end to racism and discrimination in his country. 

According to a report in the Times of India, Panday, addressing a gathering of 20,000 people at a function at Divali Nagar, called on Indo-Trinidadians to light the match that would ignite the flame of civil disobedience against the People's National Movement Government. 

He accused the government of closely aligning itself with criminal elements and this led to an unprecedented level of crime in the country against Indians. 

"There is a dark cloud hanging over the beautiful land of our birth and we have no option now but to resist this form of racism and discrimination and stand up and fight," he said. 

"There is an ominous picture of crime, racism, discrimination and humiliation against Indo-Trinidadians in the country, who I prefer to call Indians," Panday added. 

Alluding to the fact that Gandhi fought for India's freedom through non-violence and civil disobedience, and King adopted the same path in the US, he said, "we in Trinidad and Tobago must follow the examples of Gandhi and King to free ourselves from oppression to which we have been subjected." 

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