Former People’s National Congress Minister and General Secretary Ranji Chandisingh passed away on Monday afternoon at his Waterloo Street, Georgetown home. He was 79 years old.
He was the husband of Veronica Chandisingh to whom he was married for over 40 years, his only son Yuri Chandisingh told Stabroek News yesterday.
According to him it was just after five in the afternoon when his father took his last breath.
“I think it was mostly his time, he went peacefully,” he said.
He acknowledged that while this was the entire family’s time of grief, his mother is feeling it the most.
“I have to be strong for her because she is feeling it the most. They have been married for so long so you can well imagine how she is feeling now that her partner and friend has gone,” he said.
He said his two children have since been trying to cheer up their grandmother.
Chandisingh was one of the senior members of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) central and executive committee who had crossed the floor and joined the People’s National Congress (PNC) in 1975.
He had served as General Secretary in the party and Deputy Prime Minster under the PNC administration.
Speaking with Stabroek News yesterday, PNCR leader Robert Corbin said the party was deeply saddened at his death. Corbin described Chandisingh as “a stalwart and committed Guyanese” who spent many years of his life seeking to promote not only national development but political unity.
“He had an amiable personality and was morally upright and was willing to give a helping hand. We have lost a patriot,” Corbin said
Chandisingh retired from active politics many years ago.
He was educated at Harvard University and, like most of his generation of the 60s, the PNCR said he regarded Marxism/Leninism as a vital tool for transforming this country. He joined the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) soon after his return to this country and became a member of the Cabinet of the PPP Government in 1961 as Minister of Labour, Health and Housing. He was also a leading ideologue of that Party and became the Principal of Accabre College.
The PNCR in a statement yesterday also revealed that by the middle of the 70s Chandisingh became concerned about whether the various elements in the PPP were really committed to national unity and the building of socialism. Consequently, he and many others from that party joined the ranks of the PNC.
Joining the PNC in 1975, he became Director of Studies of Cuffy Ideological Institute at Loo Creek, Soesdyke/Linden Highway and a member of the Central Executive Committee of the PNC. In that capacity he wrote the highly informative booklet entitled “Education in the Revolution for Socialist Transformation and Development”.
In January 1980, he was appointed Minister of Higher Education. In the following year, he became Minister of Education, Social Development and Culture and in 1984, he replaced Dr. Ptolemy Reid as General Secretary of the People’s National Congress when the latter retired. In 1985, after the death of President Burnham, he elected to retire from active politics, the party also said.
The PNCR added that Chandisingh was an outstanding politician and educator of unquestionable integrity and patriotism who used his strength and his practical experience to embrace a vision for a truly united, progressive and developed Guyana.
“As a person Mr. Ranji Chandisingh was a very private man, even if ascetic, whose private hours seemed dedicated to reading and thinking about the various issues affecting mankind in general and his fellow Guyanese in particular. He was gracious, well spoken and honest in his personal and social relations. Indeed, he was a Guyanese who has been a credit and a blessing to this nation,” the statement read.
The People’s National Congress Reform also said it believes that as a grateful nation all must recognise those who have made a contribution to the political and social development of this country. Accordingly therefore, the Party recognises the valuable contributions that he made to the development of both the PPP and the PNC and the country as a whole.
