Datt served as Principal of Suva Grammar School, where he participated in the national teachers' strikes in 1985, which launched his political career with the Fiji Labour Party.

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.

[2] 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.

[3] 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.