Tearoom attendant said she was uncomfortable

Praba Singh, the tearoom attendant in the Parliament reported that she felt “very uncomfortable and I just wanted to leave the room” by the time Housing Minister Dr Keith Rowley and Fyzabad MP Chandresh Sharma began speaking “loudly” to each other.  She said they were talking loudly to each other but she could not recall the words they were saying. Singh’s testimony, according to the First Report of the Privileges Committee was crucial because she was the only non-partisan “totally independent” eye-witness to the incident on September 15 in the members’ lounge in which three UNC MPs alleged that Rowley struck, chucked and pelted Sharma.

The three UNC MPs — Sharma, Roodal Moonilal and Kelvin Ramnath — confirmed that they were served, but made no mention of her presence in the area during the incident in their testimony. However, both PNM MPs —Keith Rowley and Stanford Callender — conferred that she was there.  Callender referred to her as a “little Indian lady..with a kind of funny name” during his testimony, Rowley referred to her by name in his evidence, saying that he had asked her to get him a cup of tea and some crackers. In fact that this empty teacup became a vital instrument during the heated exchange that was to follow between Sharma and Rowley.

Singh said she was present in the lounge serving the MPs tea. She said everybody was speaking cordially at first, then there was quarrelling. She heard “raised voices”  which “caused me to lift my head and start to pay attention to what was happening.” Singh reported:  “What I heard is Mr Sharma telling Dr Rowley that the PNM is racist and he is racist. Dr Rowley replied: ‘Are you calling me a racist?’ Mr Sharma replied: ‘Yes.’ At that point Dr Rowley walked up to Mr Sharma and Mr Sharma stood up. Dr Rowley turned around, looked at me,” she said, adding that she then lowered her eyes and continued fixing her work which at the time involved arranging the glasses. This, according to the evidence of the three UNC MPs was when the first series of physical assaults had taken place but Singh in response to questions from the committee members said she saw no physical contact. Singh said she then went to the coffee station which is nearby. (It was during this time that the throwing of objects was supposed to have taken place, according to the evidence of the other eyewitnesses).

Singh stated:  “While I was putting the glasses on the coffee station I heard a noise. I can’t say that I can identify it, but at that point I heard Dr Moonilal telling Mr Sharma to be quiet. He (Moonilal) said: ‘Keith, walk away’...With that I left and walked out of the dining room..and Ms Carter asked me at that point..”Did something break?’..A little while after I went back to clear the tearoom. There was a teacup that was broken..The remote was on the sofa and the cordless phone was on the ground close to the television.”