Together with thousands of Guyanese, while watching the launching of the Christmas Market on Main Street in Georgetown a few days ago, we saw Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo walk in, and we saw him interacting with people. People hugged him, people shook his hands, and people kissed him. As usual, he was treated like a rock star. VP Jagdeo looked healthy, relaxed, jovial and happy. We know he has been very busy working on the preparation of Budget 2026. It was good for him to take a break from budget preparations. After all, it is Christmas time, and Christmas comes only once a year.
But then we saw this post from Mark Benschop, a man who once was in jail for treason, after he had led a group that entered the Presidential Compound and killed a guard. According to this anti-PPP, Jagdeo-hating charlatan, Vice President Jagdeo was very sick and on his deathbed. Benschop claimed that the PPP paid a man from India, named Delip Shastri Venkatasammy, US$200,000 to come to Guyana and pretend to be Bharrat Jagdeo.
Each year, Hollywood in America gives out awards called the OSCAR. Among the OSCARS is the award for best actor. In 2025, Hollywood’s OSCAR for best actor went to Adrien Brody for playing the main character in the movie The Brutalist. For those who might have seen the movie, Adrien Brody did a remarkable job of acting. But if Hollywood thought that Adrien Brody was a masterclass in acting, they did not see Delip Shastri Venkatasammy. It would be really hard for anyone to beat out Delip, as he performed a role so immaculate that it really is impossible to find any actor who could do a better job. There is now a movement for Hollywood to give Delip the Oscar for best actor for 2026 for playing Bharrat Jagdeo even better than Bharrat Jagdeo himself could have done.
The only problem with all of this is that Benschop’s claim is totally fake news. First, VP Bharrat Jagdeo is well; he is not on his deathbed. Second, the PPP paid no person US$200,000 to pretend he is Bharrat Jagdeo. Third, Benschop’s Delip Shastri Venkatasammy is not real. It is the level to which anti-Government activists have descended – total fabrication, total shameless lies. The lie is so blatant; it is a disgusting insult to the Guyanese people. Benschop and others believe that no matter how outrageous the lie, people will believe it.
Bharrat Jagdeo’s Thursday press conferences have created real nightmares for the opposition. His absence from the press conferences on Thursdays has caused the opposition to start rumours of deathly sickness. They know very well that he is busy, that he has been working with the Ministry of Finance to conclude Budget 2026 for early presentation in January 2026. But they figure they could utilise his absence from the iconic Thursday press conferences to get people to think that the Vice President is very sick. Yet it is absurd to lie so blatantly because sooner or later the Vice President will show up and the lies will be exposed. It is exactly what happened last weekend.
But in the coming days, Bharrat Jagdeo will do what he has done at Christmas time for decades. He will walk the streets of Georgetown, visit the stores, and talk with business owners, shoppers and visitors. It will not be Delip Shastri Venkatasammy because this is a fictional character conceived entirely in the warped mind of Benschop. It will not be a ghost. It will be, in fact, the real Bharrat Jagdeo interacting with people, helping to spread the holiday spirit.
The opposition has resorted to inventing things to attack the Government. The latest one is accusing the Government of breaking its promise of delivering a cash grant. They know that the PPP Government has delivered on all its promises. They, however, pretend that the President has broken his promise of a cash grant. The PNC parliamentary leader, Terrence Campbell, decided to call for a protest demanding the cash grant. But they were only able to mobilise and bus in a handful of people. Even the leader of the PNC refused to support the protest. Most of their MPs were missing in action (MIA). Azruddin Mohamed and his supporters refused to join the protest.
But Azruddin Mohamed and his supporters have been on social media protesting and demanding the cash grant. The objective is clear. The opposition realises that a cash grant will soon be announced. When President Ali declared at the launching of the Christmas market this past weekend that the cash grant is “alive and well”, the opposition panicked. Campbell decided to find some pensioners to come protest. Azruddin Mohamed decided to physically threaten the Minister of Amerindian Affairs in a desperate attempt to distract people. The whole cash grant protest and demand through social media is intended to take credit for the cash grant when it is declared. They want to transform the Government’s “we always keep our promises” to their invented “we pressured the Government to give a cash grant”.
Lies, of course, have become the opposition’s only prayer against the PPP. Even now that there is a mountain of evidence to show that the US Government has sanctioned and charged the Mohameds with serious crimes, Azruddin Mohamed is out on social media and in the public, seizing every opportunity to accuse Bharrat Jagdeo and Irfaan Ali of carrying out political persecution against him. He lies to the Guyanese people that the American Government has nothing against him. He lies that Jagdeo and Irfaan Ali are controlling President Donald Trump, Secretary of State (Foreign Affairs Minister) Marco Rubio and the American Justice System.
Azruddin Mohamed, indeed, is trying his best to act like the innocent victim. He is certainly giving Benschop’s fictional character, Delip Shastri Venkatasammy, stiff competition for the Oscar for best actor.