Shiva Boys' Hindu College to be named after Basdeo Panday in 2025

The Shiva Boys' Hindu College in Penal will officially be renamed after former prime minister Basdeo Panday in January 2025 after the one-year mourning period of Hinduism.

The Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha (SDMS) secretary general Vijay Maharaj proposed the school be renamed the Basdeo Panday Shiva Boys' Hindu College at an executive meeting on January 4, just three days after Panday died.

It was the first major tribute to the country's fifth prime minister.

Maharaj told Newsday on Sunday the school will be renamed, but in Hinduism, it is inauspicious to embark on new ventures within a year of a person's death.

"During that period, you don't go and do anything out of the ordinary like building a house, borrowing money, buying cars and this type of thing. So according to Hindu rites, yes, the school will be renamed after Mr Panday but they will not be done... until the one-year period is completed," he said.

Speaking at the executive meeting earlier this month, Maharaj described the gesture as a "lasting tribute" to the country's first Hindu prime minister.

"The renaming is not just symbolic, it is not a symbolic gesture. It is an affirmation of our cultural identity, a celebration of our shared heritage and a recognition of our contribution to those who have shaped the destiny of our nation."

Legal adviser to the SDMS and UNC MP Dinesh Rambally then said the renaming would only take place once the family gave consent.

Panday, 90, died on January 1 during medical treatment in the United States. Immediately after his death, members of the public called for several tributes to Panday, chief among them being to rename the Piarco International Airport iafter him. However, his daughter Mickela has since dismissed this, saying he would not have wanted any such grand gestures.

"You know I tried to think of what he’d say if he was here, and he’d say, ‘What you naming anything after me for? Don’t name anything after me!’ That’s what he’d say: ‘Don’t name anything after me’."

"If he wanted anything, it was never about him, it was not about his name. It was always country before self and therefore, it was what would have helped the country, and constitutional reform would have helped the country, so that is what he’d want. I’m echoing his sentiment as I feel he would have said."

On Thursday, the Prime Minister announced that Cabinet had approved a committee to look into constitutional reform.

Speaking at a post-Cabinet press conference at Whitehall, Dr Rowley said the mandate of the eight-member committee would be to formulate the terms of reference for national consultation on constitutional reform.

"What Cabinet approved as an advisory committee to formulate the terms of reference and to make recommendations to Cabinet within three months of its appointment for the promoting and convening of a national constitutional conference and consultation in June of 2024, taking into consideration the diverse nature of our national society, its historical evolution, and the progress made in nationhood since attaining independence and republican status, and matters related thereto."

Rowley said it was an appropriate time to evaluate, amend and upgrade the Constitution.

The committee was not tasked with crafting a new constitution, Rowley said, but would need to engage people and bodies representing citizens, including the diaspora.

"They are simply being asked to facilitate and advance a national discourse on the subject and to be the sounding board, the post office, into which any and all interested parties, agencies (and) organisations will want to put their views to this facility advisory committee."

He said the committee will also prepare a working document for a constitutional conference in June when the amendments will be discussed.

Committee members:
Chairman: former Speaker of the House Barendra Sinanan, SC
Former Central Bank Governor Dr Terrence Farrell
Former Tobago House of Assembly chief administrator Raye Sandy
Former Clerk of the House Jacqui Sampson-Meiguel
Former Public Service Commission chairman and permanent secretary in the Agriculture Ministry Winston Rudder
Former Speaker Nizam Mohammed
Consulting managing partner at Ernst & Young Caribbean (EYC) Hema Narinesingh.