Krishna Datt

Career

Datt was first elected into the House of Representatives in 1987 and was the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Civil Aviation in the Bavadra Government before being deposed by the coup of 1987. After the present constitutional arrangements came into force in 1999, he represented the Macuata East Open Constituency, one of 25 elected by universal suffrage. He was re-elected in the 2001 election with an increased majority and held the positions of the Vice-President of the Fiji Labour Party, and its parliamentary whip.

In 2003, Datt was offered the portfolio of Minister for Special Education, the Disabled and National Library Services, together with 13 other FLP parliamentarians who were offered cabinet positions by the Prime Minister, Laisenia Qarase but the FLP refused to accept this offer.

According to Vijay Naidu, he "quickly gain the image of a national statesman". Chaudhry threatened those not voting against the budget with disciplinary action, and there was a public feud between him and his party leader, Mahendra Chaudhry but the 2006 coup took place before any action could be taken.

As Vijay Naidu notes, Datt was in the unusual position of having been removed from government by a coup on three separate occasions.

Achievements

• He also contested and won the Ba Rural Indian Constituency in the 1994 election. In the election duly held on 6–13 May, he won the Nasinu Indian Communal Constituency with an overwhelming majority, and was subsequently appointed to the Cabinet as Minister for Labour and Employment Opportunities, one of nine Ministers from the FLP in Laisenia Qarase"s multi-party cabinet.

Politics

On 12 December 2005, Datt announced that he would retire from politics at the parliamentary election scheduled for 2006, but on 14 March 2006, said that he had changed his mind at the request of his party.

Membership

He became a member of the Chaudhry government, which was deposed in the 2000 coup. The FLP members of the Cabinet were advised by its leader, Mahendra Chaudhry, to vote against the 2007 budget but Datt was absent during voting.