UNC snarls, PNM chuckles over incident

Keith Rowley had a hard time yesterday as he sought to present his case that Chandresh Sharma called him a racist in a tone of voice that was loud and in language that was very insulting and very abusive. While the UNC response to Rowley was heated and acerbic, the PNM merely chuckled at Sharma’s account of the injuries which, according to a doctor, included “soft tissue injury to face and right hand.... probably inflicted with a blunt object with mild to moderate force.” Both men made statements in Parliament.

Keith Rowley’s basis for asking that Sharma be referred to the Privileges Committee for a breach of privilege was his (Sharma’s) “vile utterances” and his verbal attacks and insults on him (Rowley) in the most “indecent and dishonourable manner” in the precincts of Parliament. As he recounted how Sharma labelled him a racist several times, Harry Partap shouted: “So yuh had to hit him for that.” Kelvin Ramnath thundered: “That is not true. He is lying.” Sharma countered: “He is misleading the House.” Rowley said while he was “gravely insulted” and “molested” by “threats of obscenities,” he would have resisted the temptation to report the matter, had the offence not been compounded by a subsequent plethora of false reports fed to the media.

He said he viewed it as a blatant attempt to tarnish his reputation and to intimidate him in the performance of his duties. Sharma said he was subjected to abusive and insulting language, was struck in the face and chest and had objects thrown at him. He said he received medical treatment at the PoS General Hospital. Quoting from Mays, he said there were valid reasons for punishing Rowley for a breach of privilege.