In order to avoid the State having to pay for two trips, the late president Dr Cheddi Jagan who died on March 6, 1997 following a heart attack, postponed urgent and critically needed cardiac surgery by two months.
The disclosures by former PPP stalwart Ralph Ramkarran and Dr Tulsi Dyal Singh – who was consulted by Dr Jagan in the days prior to his heart attack on February 14, 1997 – comes as controversy rages over comments by former president Bharrat Jagdeo who sought to compare his lifestyle to that of former presidents Cheddi and Janet Jagan.
In his column in the Sunday Stabroek, Ramkarran had recalled that throughout the 1970s, Dr and Mrs Jagan were often seen at modest restaurants around Georgetown on Saturday evenings as dining out was one of their few pleasures. This, as well as Mrs Jagan’s visits to the hairdresser, stopped during the 1980s because they could no longer afford it, he had written. Ramkarran had said that when
