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In­de­pen­dent sen­a­tor De­oroop Teemal was hailed as an ex­em­plar, pa­tri­ot, and fam­i­ly man by his fel­low par­lia­men­tar­i­ans Wade Mark, Pres­i­dent of the Sen­ate, and Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tor Dr Amery Browne. Teemal, who passed away on Sun­day, was cre­mat­ed on Wednes­day fol­low­ing a fu­ner­al ser­vice at the NCIC Na­gar, Ch­agua­nas.

Mark de­scribed Teemal as a man of deep in­tegri­ty, qui­et con­vic­tion, and an un­wa­ver­ing sense of du­ty. He said he served along­side Teemal as an Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tor in the Up­per House fol­low­ing Teemal’s ap­point­ment in 2018 by for­mer Pres­i­dent Paula-Mae Weekes. Mark not­ed that be­yond his par­lia­men­tary con­tri­bu­tions, Teemal al­so served with the NCIC and was the long­stand­ing head of the Hin­du Swayam­se­vak Sangh since 1988. Mark said, “His work in the cul­tur­al and re­li­gious spheres en­riched the lives of thou­sands, he led not with fan­fare but with qui­et ded­i­ca­tion and spir­i­tu­al strength em­body­ing the dharmic prin­ci­ples he held so dear.”

Mark shared that Teemal would beam gen­uine­ly and un­apolo­get­i­cal­ly when speak­ing of his fam­i­ly. “There was a light­ness in his voice, a soft­ness in his eyes. It was clear that be­neath the pub­lic ser­vice and pro­fes­sion­al com­mit­ments was a man root­ed deeply in love and lega­cy. For him fam­i­ly was not on­ly his foun­da­tion, it was his great­est ful­fil­ment.”