ROWLEY: PLOT HATCHED AT UNC CAUCUS

Stressing that lying to the police was an offence, Government minister Dr Keith Rowley charged yesterday that “something” transpired in the deliberations of the UNC caucus on Wednesday afternoon which resulted in the allegations that he assaulted UNC MP Chandresh Sharma. He was speaking at a post-Cabinet news conference at Whitehall yesterday. In fact both Rowley and Leader of Government Business Ken Valley pointed out that Sharma vibrantly participated in the proceedings of the Finance Committee, following the “very heated, very short, agitated, verbal exchange” with Rowley. And the records of Hansard would bear this out, they stressed. “The comradarie during the Committee meeting was extremely high,” Valley said, suggesting that it was obviously not Sharma’s intention to taking the matter any further.  However, during the time-lapse between the incident and the assault complaint, there was a meeting in Committee Room Number 5 of the UNC, they said. “This came out of a UNC caucus. And all this is a political conspiracy,” he said.

Rowley said while verbal altercations were normal in the Parliament, blows were not. Painting himself as the aggrieved party, he said he had been advised that the provisions of the law prevent an MP from being verbally abused in the way he was by MP Sharma “who described me... as an obscene racist.” “I intend to refer that matter to the Speaker for adjudication with respect to the Parliamentary Privilege,” he said. He said he would also be consulting his lawyers to find out if he had been slandered by Kamla Persad-Bissessar and Ganga Singh, both of whom were not present in the tea room at the time, but who were “virtually giving testimony” about the assault in the media. Rowley, who said he heard that Sharma was warded and on drips as a result of the incident, denied ever throwing a teacup at Sharma, charging: “He (Sharma) broke the Government teacup.” “I was having a cup of tea and the empty cup was in front of me and MP Sharma in threatening me with violence, promised to do certain things to me.

In waving his hands across the table the teacup flew across the table, fell unto the floor,” Rowley said. Referring to the Newsday front page picture of Sharma pointing to his alleged injured cheek, Rowley said he was a right hander. “If I am to slap MP Sharma in the face, he would not be pointing on that side of his face. I would slap him on the other side.” Rowley, who said he was surprised by Sharma’s allegation, recalled that after the Parliament adjourned and they all went their separate ways, he understood Sharma went back to the tea room and had tea. “I don’t know if what he consumed had anything to do with his blood sugar.” Asked whether he had inquired about Sharma’s health, Rowley responded: “Now you want me to take the joke even further.”