Congress of the People (COP) chair Nicole Dyer-Griffith has accused her political leader Prakash Ramadhar of being “sexist” after he described her as being emotional in the wake of her husband’s firing on Monday by the Prime Minister. Dyer-Griffith yesterday baulked at the term and the fact that Ramadhar referred to her by her first name when speaking to the media on Tuesday.
Her initial comments after the Cabinet reshuffle, which also axed Timothy Hamel-Smith as Senate President, was that the party had to revisit its position as a coalition member of the Government. On Tuesday, Ramadhar was reported as saying that in being fair to “Nicole,” he could “only imagine the emotions she would have felt because the decisions which were taken in relation to her husband, and to be fair to her I think she spoke in her personal capacity.”
Ramadhar, the Legal Affairs Minister, who was given the additional portfolio as Justice Minister, said then the party was in full support of the PM’s decision to fire Griffith and Ramlogan. Ramlogan is accused of attempting to get David West, director of the PCA, to withdraw his witness statement in a defamation lawsuit supporting Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley in exchange for the PCA post and West confided in Griffith about it.
Dyer-Griffith said yesterday that if those statements made by Ramadhar were true she “emphatically condemn the tone and tenor therein. Dyer-Griffith said the attribution of “her emotions”, was further compounded by the referring to me as “Nicole”. “Now, notwithstanding, the political leader and I having what could have been described as a friendship, I have never in any of my public utterances referred to him as ‘Prakash’. I have maintained the tone and tenor of his role and standing,” she said.
She said her statements to the media revolved around the removal of her husband, former national security minister Gary Griffith, and the removal of Senate President COP member Timothy Hamel-Smith, “which only serves to underscore a wider and deeper sense of loss for the COP.” She said if Ramadhar did make those statements then he could be accused of bordering on “chauvinistic, sexist and meaning to demean. Ramadhar did not respond to calls to his mobile.