PNM sowed seeds of July 27 — NAR leader

Addressing a news conference at the party’s Victoria Square headquarters, Sankersingh also said the party plans to institute criminal proceedings against the Government regarding activities which allegedly occurred during the July 18 by-election in Siparia which was won by the PNM.

Sankersingh said the NAR rejected statements made in Parliament by Trade and Industry Minister Ken Valley about the social policies of the then NAR government contributing to the events of July 27.

He said the NAR built its policies upon the 1986 George Chambers administration and when it left office in 1991, the incoming Patrick Manning regime used the NAR’s policies to guide its own.

Valley, in a telephone interview, said he was not going to get into an argument with the NAR.

Arguing that July 27 could not be compared with the 1970 Black Power uprising, Sankersingh claimed the environment in TT during the period 1986 to 1991 provided opportunities for Valley and others to "foment discontent in the society."

NAR activist Wendell Eversley, who started a fast outside Manning’s Whitehall office last week, claimed July 27 was a plot to overthrow the then NAR government and reiterated the party’s call for a commission of inquiry into those events.

The NAR will shift its fast to the Red House on Wednesday where a ceremony to mark the 15th anniversary of the coup attempt will take place.

Sankersingh also claimed that the PNM broke the law during the Siparia by-election. He said the NAR will examine whether it could initiate legal action against either the Government or certain government ministers regarding those alleged activities. UNC campaign manager for the Siparia by-election, Dr Allan Sammy, said the UNC had also detected certain irregularities and it was in the process of compiling a report which will be submitted soon to the UNC’s leadership.

This was confirmed by UNC political leader Basdeo Panday.

Sankersingh was pessimistic that a committee chaired by Legal and Consumer Affairs Minister Christine Kangaloo would address the issue of rising food prices in TT.