Tarapatie "Tara" Oedayraj Singh Varma is a former Dutch politician and former member of the House of Representatives for the GreenLeft party who gained notoriety after falsely claiming to suffer from an incurable cancer.
After the 1994 election, Singh Varma became a member of the House of Representatives. She succeeded Ina Brouwer, who had stepped down after the poorelection results. She was the first female member of the House of Representatives who was not born in the Netherlands. When she entered parliament questions were raised about her integrity. There were questions surrounding fundraising efforts for the Grenada Foundation in which Singh Varma was involved. A committee led by former minister Dieuwke de Graaff-Nauta came to the conclusion that Singh Varma had not embezzled money, but that her actions as treasurer had been neglectful. In parliament Singh Varma spoke on home affairs, health, and welfare. She paid particular attention to the position of migrant women. While in parliament she took many positions outside of parliament in boards of foundations and associations for migrants, women and other social groups. She chaired the Surinam Women's Council and was member of the board of the Volunteer Centre in Amsterdam, the migrant women centre Zami, and the prostitutes' trade union the Red Thread. In 1996 she claimed to be intimidated and attacked by far right groups. No proof of this was ever found. In 1997 she was put on the ninth place on the GreenLeft list for the 1998 election. The committee for candidacy stated that she "did not excel in parliamentary work," but because of the unexpectedly good election result for the GreenLeft she was re-elected. She also got a large number of preference votes. In 1998 she was a member of the parliamentary inquiry committee on the airplane crash in the Bijlmermeer. This position got her national fame.
Singh Varma Affair
In 2000 Singh Varma claimed that she was less able to perform her work as Member of Parliament. Twice she appeared in the House of Representatives in a wheelchair. She claimed to suffer from an incurable form of cancer and announced that she would leave the House of Representatives to prepare for the end of her life. In June 2001 the TROS television show Opgelicht?! discovered that Singh Varma did not suffer from cancer. Moreover, according to this program, Singh Varma had not fulfilled financial promises to the Indian development organizationNinash Foundation, which had put the organization into financial problems. First Singh Varma denied both claims and sued the journalists. In August 2001 she claimed that she had not suffered from cancer and instead suffered from post traumatic stress disorder after self-fabricated far right threats and her commitment to the victims of the plane crash in the Bijlmermeer. In 2002 she publicly apologized for her actions. She denied lying on purpose about her diseases and stated that she suffered from delusions and medical condition called pseudologia fantastica. Paul Rosenmöller, political leader of the GreenLeft at the time writes that he felt "cheated and angry" because of her revelations.
Life after politics
After leaving parliament Singh Varma became editor of the People's Newspaper Suriname around 2005. Later she worked in a Surinam deli.
