Tuesday, September 1 2009

OPPOSITION Leader Basdeo Panday yesterday could not say whether or not he was invited to several Independence Day events, as members of the Opposition complained that they had not received invitations to the National Awards ceremony and Independence Day parade.

Asked if he was invited to the Independence Day Parade or the National Awards ceremony, Panday said, “I don’t know I haven’t been to the office.”

On Friday, Panday returned from a trip to New York where he was a guest at the Global Organisation of People of Indian Origin’s (GOPIO) 20th anniversary conference. However, Panday said if he was invited to the National Awards ceremony, he would have boycotted it.

“I think it’s farcical,” he said. “By that I mean it’s a joke; nobody respects it anymore because of the trivial manner in which awards are given. There is a committee which is set up by the Chief Justice and the CJ and his committee makes recommendations but it goes to the Prime Minister who may add and subtract from that list and therefore it’s really the Prime Minister’s list,” Panday said.