From Caribbean360

Communication Minister Vasant Barath told reporters that the action by Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar to accept the resignation of Sharma and dismiss her other minister “showed courage and bravery necessary to put this country in a much better place.”

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad, Wednesday April 2, 2014, CMC – Newly appointed Communication Minister Vasant Barath Tuesday dismissed calls from the main opposition People’s National Movement (PNM) for fresh general elections following the removal from Cabinet of a second minister within a one week period.

“We have no intentions of abandoning ship like the PNM has done on several occasions when the going got tough,” Barath said, in an apparent reference to the decision by former prime minister Patrick Manning to call two early general elections, the last in 2010, when the PNM administration was defeated by the coalition People’s Partnership government.

Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar Monday announced that she had asked President Anthony Carmona to revoke the appointment of her tourism minister Chandresh Sharma after he had early submitted his resignation amid allegations that he had assaulted a former lover in a car park on March 12.

His removal from the cabinet followed that of Dr. Glen Ramadharsingh, the minister of the People and Social Development, who was booted out of office for his disorderly conduct on board a Caribbean Airlines (CAL) domestic flight this month.

PNM public relations officer, Faris Al-Wari dismissed the “public relations spin” he said the prime minister had sought to give when announcing Sharma’s removal from her Cabinet and called for fresh general elections.

“We say that this government is but the remains of a rotten carcass and it is real incumbent upon the government to allow the people to go back to the choice of a mandate and for us to be relived of the yoke that this government stands in Trinidad and Tobago,” he added.

But Barath told reporters that the action by Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar to accept the resignation of Sharma and dismiss her other minister “showed courage and bravery necessary to put this country in a much better place.”

“She should be applauded and congratulated for that,” he added.

Meanwhile, 30-year-old Sacha Singh, the managing director of a security firm, who reported Sharma to the police after she was allegedly assaulted, said she is now the target of a smear campaign.

She told reporters that the campaign involving private confidential pictures of herself were being circulated as part of a move by some people to smear her character.

She described her relationship with Sharma, a married man, as a relatively good one and should not have gotten to the point of violence. She denied her intention of going public was an attempt to destroy Sharma’s political career.

Acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams confirmed that an investigation into the matter had been launched after the woman reported the incident to the police. She claimed that she was “knocked out after being pushed” by Sharma during an argument involving her and two other people.

Singh, who appeared on television on Sunday night, said that Sharma should publicly apologise “for his outright assault against me.”

Singh alleged that she confronted Sharma with a woman with whom he allegedly had an affair and a 12-year-old child from that relationship whom he refused to maintain and when she did this, he became violent.

Sharma said on Monday night he would remain quiet on the issues that led to his resignation promising nonetheless to “continue privately to clear my name in the interest of justice.”

“No further public statement on matters pertaining to the alleged incident will be made as it is entirely a matter for my attorneys to handle,” said Sharma

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