Dr Bhoen­dra­datt Tewarie is one of T&T’s longest-serv­ing and most dis­tin­guished pub­lic in­tel­lec­tu­als, as he was first elect­ed to the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives in 1986 as a mem­ber of the Na­tion­al Al­liance for Re­con­struc­tion gov­ern­ment.

When the NAR lost pow­er in 1991, he was em­ployed as a lec­tur­er at the St Au­gus­tine cam­pus of The Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies, and he served as ex­ec­u­tive di­rec­tor of the UWI In­sti­tute of Busi­ness (IOB) for nine years be­fore be­ing ap­point­ed pro vice-chan­cel­lor and prin­ci­pal of the St. Au­gus­tine cam­pus in Sep­tem­ber 2001.

Dr Tewarie re­turned to front-line pol­i­tics in May 2011, when he was ap­point­ed a sen­a­tor and min­is­ter of plan­ning, eco­nom­ic and so­cial re­struc­tur­ing and gen­der af­fairs in Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s first ad­min­is­tra­tion. He was elect­ed to the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives in 2015 as the Mem­ber for Ca­roni Cen­tral in the 11th Par­lia­ment.