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.
Ranji Chandisingh
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.
don’t know him, but it seems like he was a man of substance. RIP
My condolence to Mr. Ranji Chandisingh’s family. Mr Chandisingh was indeed an outstanding Politician. He has done so much in the Education system during the time he serves as Senior Minister of Education.
Mr Chandisingh was a gentleman, he spoke very well, very quiet, honest, an educator who has served his country well. The Party and people who had the privilege to know him he was a distinguish Guyanese Scholar. May he rest in peace
Guyanese with his qualities of decency and compromise are in very short supply. The nation is definitely poorer at his passing. My deepest condolences to the family of Ranji Chandisingh and thanks for his service to the nation.
Am I on a blacklist that each day all of my posts are set aside for moderation? This post is most innocuous but it has been set aside for moderation while an epistle sent at 7:34 a.m. has been posted. It’s obvious something is amiss here. What has prevented my post at 6:34 a.m. from being the first to be posted? it’s now after 8:00 a.m.
Pokemon you should apply to SN fa a job.
All my life as a black man I have received special negative treatment and I am very sensitive to slights and discrimination. I have now attained an age and financial independence that precludes my having to accept disrespect or seek employment in the future. Old age and financial security have added arrogance to my artillery of virtues.
Old age? You should take it a easy then and don’t let SN stress you out. We want to continue hearing from you for as long as possible.
my condolences to his family and the pnc for their loss of a
great son of the soil, a man who truly tried to unite all
people of guyana, i salute such a person may his soul r.i.p
Invictus
OUT of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
William Ernest Henley. 1849–1903
On behalf of the youths on the 350 block on East street at the time when he lived there.I would extend condolences to the Chandisingh Family during their hour of Bereavement. May his soul Rest in Peace
My condolences to his family…May his soul RIP…
With respect to all his brilliance and qualifications, he used all to embrace injustices and dictatorship in Guyana that destroyed the fabric and culture of Guyanese in Guyana…
same is gonna be said for a lot of your comrades now associated with raja khan when history is written soldier.
You are right he did join the phenc as many like Sir Sridat Ramphal and others but whatever Chandisingh did is minor in comparison to what your drug invested crew is doing now.
soldier i know that communist don’t believe in god so i dont expect better from you. you speak about ranji chandisingh in mean terms and have forgotten to mention the aicked things that Janet jagan did.. how convenient.
well said he was so brilliant, yet he allowed himself to be used by the PNC.
You are admitting to wrong doing against alleged wrong doing Samaroo…When will you produce the evidences to write history????
Hold your fire, Soldier. Let there be truce today.
MY condolrnces to his family-May his soul rest in peace.
He was a brilliant man who should have never crossed the line.
Sounds like a case of out of the frying pan into the fire Samaroo.
Can you just remind me of what Janet Jagan did John Brown??? As far as my memory stretches I can only remember she dedicated her life to the fight for a free Guyana and a free nation working together for one common goal…
she disrespected the laws of the land soldier, throwing the legal papers over her shoulders,whats wrong with your memory, surely you cannot forget this very unbecomming gesture.
Ranji was a man who saw what others who left the PPP saw and like the many scholars and KNOWLEDGEABLE people before and after him, chose to serve his country. He did this with distinction, pride and no regrets. His type is a dying breed in Guyana. My regret on his passing is that he did not write about his decision and the politics of his time. May his memory live on.
soldier boy you are as predictable as a river. Show me de proofs proofs proofs.
Even the dead you are letting out your disrespectfulness to, how shallow you are.
She did not disrespect the law Tiger she upheld and maintained the law, she inherited a Burnham Constitution that made her the EXECUTIVE president of Guyana, hence the woman was not subjected to any law in Guyana much more court documents…
Go with God, Ranji.
Sincere condolences to the family of this great man.He was my Principal while I attended Cuffy Ideological College.
He was a man of integrity and principle;a humble man whom history would judge a one of the stalwarts of Guyana. A man who NEVER compromised himself for filthy lucre. Qualities that are sadly lacking in the leaders of today. On behalf of my husband and I, both students of CII, I urge you, his family, to be proud of his legacy.
What legacy?? His personal achievements that was gained through the Tax payers of Guyana and which he used to the maximum to embrace Dictatorship , the one that chased Guyanese by the masses out of Guyana to seek refugee status all over the world? What la Rue??
reality check soldier,(1)dictatorship is presently evident in guyana. (2)guyanese are being chased by the masses presently by the ppp govt,example, check the stats, application to the us and canada has risen 300% since your govt came to power, not to mention barbados.
I told you many times before that the people who are leaving now are as a result of sponsorship by their relatives who were driven out by the Burnhma dictatorship…
u missed the point soldier, THEY ARE LEAVING anyway, thought you people would have returned to guyana since your govt is in power.
Well said soldier. Those people who forgot the turmoil and hardship the guyanese people endure during the Burnham dictorship is suffering from a loss of memory.
Was I suppose to tell you about the amount returning to Guyana and making hugh investments and taking up residence once again??? I thought you would have had these figures since you are so update on the applications…Any way they are enough to return the PPP to power in 2011, if it is that you are worried about…
I’ve always respected Ranji Chandisingh, even after he left the PPP and joined the PNC in 1975. When I joined the PPP in 1969 Chandisingh was regarded as the party’s leading theoretician. Through his well-written articles in the THUNDER journal I learnt a lot about politics and ideology. At a personal level he was always kind to me. He was a man of integrity, scrupulous to a fault. After trips abroad on party assignments he never failed to prepare and submit a written account of how he spent his per diem travel allowances, even including the cigarettes he purchased. He left the PPP at a critical time in its history, thanks to Forbes Burnham’s extraordinary power of persuasion. Had he remained in the PPP, he would have been a more likely candidate than Bharrat Jagdeo for the post of President of Guyana. He shared some remarkable personal traits with Cheddi Jagan, such as modesty and humility. He was a perfect gentleman, totally decent. His contribution to Guyana’s political evolution was certainly not marginal, and why he never published his memoirs remains a mystery. Sincere condolences to his wife and son.
Many people wanted to contribute to the success of Guyana and found the only way to do so was by being a part of the government. They realized as evidenced by the situation now, being in the opposition is as useless as tits on a bull. This man was driven by patriotism and not self-enrichment and must have been very saddened at the corrupt country Guyana has become.
No credit taken from him Yasuman,,, Perfect Gentleman, but he threw all away ..There are lots of lessons to be learnt from Scholars like these…
The ‘Soldier’ marches on. Obviously, you are not a scholar so, march on ‘Soldier’.
Question yasuman71: Was it just Forbes Burnham’s extraordinary power of persuasion which caused him to leave the PPP or was it also:
1 Cheddi was upsetting a lot of people.
2 There was a chance that he might later on be put in charge of the PNC?
politics breaths strange bed fellows satish,roger khan, ppp govt for example.
thank you for this yasuman – i did not know much about the guy – may his soul rest in peace…
Well said,he was also a good Councilor and motivator