(Trinidad Express) NATIONAL Security Minister Gary Griffith today demanded an apology from his Cabinet colleague, Communications Minister Vasant Bharath, a signal that the discord between the most senior members of the Peoples Partnership continues to deepen. In a statement titled
“Minister Griffith accuses Minister Vasant Bharath of either mischief or incompetence”, Griffith denied that he had breached Cabinet confidentiality. The following is the statement issued by Griffith –
In what was either a grave error or a deliberate attempt to undermine the Minister of National Security, a statement was released to the media from the Minister of Communications completely without fact, truth or merit, which has left me no choice but to respond.
In the said release it was claimed that I uttered words that I never did, and made statements that were never said and by these actions that never occurred, it was inferred that I breached Cabinet confidentiality and compromised it, which also never happened.
The truth of the matter is that all media that carried that story did so quoting unnamed sources from within Cabinet but were careful to point out that the Minister of National Security refused to comment on the issue.
All of these facts were readily available to anyone with an interest in verifying their position. It is surprising that an entire Communications Ministry failed to determine the veracity of such damning accusations levelled against a Ministerial colleague before publishing.
I reject the claims as baseless and completely without merit or foundation, and call on the Minister of Communications to withdraw his erroneous statement from the public domain and apologize for the unprovoked injury.
