Can the dancing queen save the PPP?

An interesting piece of theatre emerged during the selection of the parliamentarians to represent the PPP in the 11th Parliament. Clinton Urling was omitted. His constituency and ethnicity would have elevated his eligibility. He is a young entrepreneur who belongs to a few of the business organizations in the country. Then his ethnicity was precious capital. In the PNC and PPP ethnic faces are important because the way both parties have been seen over the years.
Indians label the PNC, an African organization. Blacks see the PPP as irredeemably pro-Indian. In such a scenario, it helps the image and deepens the credibility of all Guyanese organizations when they secure the embrace of people across cultural and ethnic lines. Urling was expendable because he had less of what Dr. Vindhya Persaud has. After criticizing Jagdeo, and publicly urging his demotion in the new dispensation, Jagdeo, the king-maker of the PPP, would have argued that the PPP can attract other African-Guyanese who have a business background. Urling was then cast out. Not that anyone should shed tears for congenital fools.
Dr. Vindya Persaud was harsher in her castigations of the PPP leadership after their defeat in the General Elections. Urling’s condemnation was chocolate compared to her poison. But she made it to Parliament. Dr. Vindya Persaud heads the largest Hindu organization in Guyana, the Dharmic Sabha. This organization was founded by her father, Reepu Daman Persaud and she grew up in it.
It means, then, she knows the key Hindu players and important Hindu constituencies all over Guyana. The cultural arm of the Sabha, the Dharmic Sanskritik Kendra in Prashad Nagar is the primary entity in Guyana in the realm of Indian cultural activities and overlaps with many Indian organizations that take in Muslim and Christian Indians alike, including the Indian Arrival Committee.
For over two decades, Dr. Persaud has put on an annual show at the Cultural Centre named Naya Zamana where she performs as a dancer with her troupe. Her organization hosts the annual Diwali motorcade and the Phagwah mela at the Kendra. The Dharmic Sabha, then, is a social and cultural heavyweight in Guyana.
Jagdeo, Luncheon, Rohee and Teixeira undoubtedly knew that alienating Dr. Persaud could engender political crisis. How interesting, none of the troglodytes – Luncheon, Rohee, Teixeira – mentioned here has a constituency. It is doubtful that if Jagdeo goes up against Dr. Persaud he could carry the Hindu community with him.
There is no risk in booting a wannabee like Urling but there is likely to be plenty trouble in doing so with the dancing queen from the Dharmic Sabha. Would she have formed her own political party if she was rejected for Parliament? Would she have sermonized against the dinosaurs in the temples and at Phagwah and Diwali festivals?
I am not a fan of Dr. Persaud’s father, the PPP stalwart, Reepu Damn Persaud. On the contrary, I can write scathing condemnations of his religious career but one cannot judge a politician based on family faults. Dr. Persaud leveled some justified castigations against top PPP leaders after the 2015 elections results for acts of both stupidity and depravity when her party was in power. For this she must be respected.
Further, she was the second PPP big wig, after Robert Persaud, to urge her party to accept the elections result.
Given her independent income (she is a medical practitioner in private practice) and her large constituency, Vindhya Persaud is strategically placed to bring some sanity and morality to the post 2015 life of the PPP.
Can she do it? If she does it, can she survive? The possibility of surviving is definitely great because of the factors she has in her favour but she obviously cannot be that silly to believe that it will be smooth sailing. The dinosaurs have a psychology of ownership. They both consciously and sub-consciously believe the PPP belongs to them. They will not allow a newcomer like Persaud to dictate to them.
They will say to hell with who her father was; she hasn’t been in service as long as them therefore she must know her place.
The problem with the troglodytes is that they lived in the past and are living in the past. There are no Cheddi and Janet Jagan. There is no Reepu Daman Persaud. His role has been taken over by his daughter. There is no PPP in power. Indians will not continue to listen to faded, jaded rock stars inside the PPP whose days are long gone.
If the dancing queen wants to start dancing her way into the hearts of the Guyanese people, she ought to continue where she left off.