Mahendra Pal Chaudhry (; born 9 February 1942) is a Fijian politician and the leader of the Fiji Labour Party. Following a historic election in which he defeated the long-time former leader, Sitiveni Rabuka, the former trade union leader became Fiji's first Indo-Fijian Prime Minister on 19 May 1999, but exactly one year later, on 19 May 2000 he and most of his Cabinet were taken hostage by coup leader George Speight, in the Fiji coup of 2000. Unable to exercise his duties, he and his ministers were sacked by President Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara on 27 May; Mara intended to assume emergency powers himself but was himself deposed by the military leader, Commodore Frank Bainimarama.
After 56 days in captivity, Chaudhry was released on 13 July and subsequently embarked on a tour of the world to rally support. He was one of the leading voices raised in opposition to the Qarase government's proposed Reconciliation and Unity Commission, which he said was just a mechanism to grant amnesty to persons guilty of coup-related offences. In January 2007, he was appointed as Minister of Finance, Sugar Reform Public Enterprise and National Planning in the interim Cabinet of Commodore Frank Bainimarama, following another coup. Chaudhry was also co-chair of the task force focusing on economic growth within the National Council for Building a Better Fiji. In August 2008, he left the government and became an outspoken critic of it.
Family background
Mahendra Chaudhry born in an Indo-Fijian family of the Balhara clan in the town of Ba in Fiji. His paternal grandfather Ram Nath Chaudhry was from the village of Bahu Jamalpur in Haryana, India (then the British Raj) and arrived in the British Colony of Fiji in 1902, as an indentured labourer, to work on Fiji's sugarcane plantations. On his arrival in Fiji he disputed the agreement to work in the plantations and was employed as a store manager until he started his own business. He later returned to India with his wife, Ram Kalia, who died 22 September 1930 at the age of 45, and whom he had met and married in Fiji. His daughter, Raj Kumari also went to India with them. His sons Ram Gopal and Krishan Gopal Chaudhry remained in Fiji. Ram Gopal had fifteen children, one of them and the eldest son being Mahendra. Mahendra's maternal grandfather was from the Indian state of Kerala, and he has settled in Fiji in the early 1900s.
He worked as a government auditor, then as secretary of the Fiji Public Service Association during its 1973 strike, and later as vice-president of the Fiji Trades Union Congress. He also served on the board of the Fiji National Provident Fund until 1986.
In 2004, Chaudhry received the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman, which is granted to members of the Indian diaspora to honor their contributions to the countries of which they are members. Chaudhry was the first Fijian citizen to receive this award.
Political career
Cabinet member after 1987 election win
Chaudhry helped to launch the Fiji Labour Party in 1985, and served as its assistant secretary. The Labour got its first chance to test its popularity in the by-election for the North Central Indian National Seat in December 1985, following the resignation of Vijay R. Singh. FLP decided to field Mahendra Chaudhry, who was also the general secretary of the National Farmers Union, as its candidate. Chaudhry lost the election by only 204 votes.
He was elected to Parliament for the first time in the 1987 general election and appointed Minister of Finance and Economic Planning in the coalition government of Timoci Bavadra. This government held office for barely a month; on 14 May, Lieutenant Colonel Sitiveni Rabuka deposed the government in the first of two military coups. In the aftermath of the coup he was repeatedly detained by the military. In January 1988 in his role as PSA secretary he led a strike by Suva firefights, which the military regime declared illegal. He was subsequently elected general secretary of the FTUC, and in this role led union resistance to the military regime. In June 1988 he was detained by the police and interrogated over the seizure of several tons of Soviet-made weaponry, but no charges were laid. He subsequently warned the military regime that Australian and New Zealand unions would be asked to take action against Fiji if the harassment of unions continued.