Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has hailed the lega­cy of late in­de­pen­dent sen­a­tor, De­oroop Teemal, who died on Sun­day morn­ing.

In a state­ment, the Prime Min­is­ter of­fered con­do­lences to his fam­i­ly, the Na­tion­al Coun­cil of In­di­an Cul­ture (NCIC), and his friends, say­ing for more than two decades, “Teemal served cul­ture and coun­try with dis­tinc­tion.”

"As Pres­i­dent of the NCIC and a se­nior or­gan­is­er of Di­vali Na­gar, he cham­pi­oned the preser­va­tion and cel­e­bra­tion of In­do-Trinida­di­an her­itage, fos­ter­ing mu­tu­al re­spect across our di­verse so­ci­ety,” the PM’s state­ment said. “In the Sen­ate, his mea­sured analy­ses, cour­tesy, and stead­fast com­mit­ment to the pub­lic good earned uni­ver­sal re­spect."