KAIETEUR NEWS of Friday November 11, 2011 published an item headlined “Jagdeo is champion of dirt – AFC Ramayya”. This is obviously in response to what the President allegedly spoke about at a PPP/C election rally held at Whim on the Corentyne Coast. This news item was apparently prepared or facilitated by Ramayya.
I wish to comment on two aspects thereof. Ramayya had a dressing down by His Excellency and it is reported that he was referred to as a Chatoondar which report stated that it meant “a person who starves for food”. Both the word and its meaning as expressed in the news report are total rubbish and the imagination of Ramayya or the reporter; Ramayya must have been under his bed when the President spoke. The President would not have called him a Chatoondar. There is no such Hindi word. The President would have referred to him as a chachundar which means a ‘mole.’ The question of food or starvation has no place there. Of course, we all know what is a mole–“a burrowing insect-eating mammal: or a spy established deep within an organisation in a position of trust”. Ramayya and his friends can have their pick.
Secondly, the qualifications of Ramayya are set out in the news item and none of them as shown or means that he is qualified to be a medical person or one versed in herbal issues or Ayurvedic sciences. The time is due for appropriate legislation to deal with this.