Sev­er­al ma­jor food chain out­lets yes­ter­day pulled Ram­saran’s Dairy Prod­ucts from their shelves in re­sponse to a so­cial me­dia post by Naila Ram­saran, the daugh­ter of the com­pa­ny’s own­er, which com­pared Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment sup­port­ers to “cock­roach­es” and “loafers” in an ap­par­ent emo­tion­al re­sponse to the par­ty’s 22-19 vic­to­ry over the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress in Mon­day’s Gen­er­al Elec­tion.

Ram­saran sub­se­quent­ly apol­o­gised for the state­ment and was fired by Ram­saran’s Dairy Prod­ucts but this did not ease the back­lash.

Fol­low­ing are state­ments from the com­pa­nies which took the ac­tion yes­ter­day.

Massy Stores Trinidad op­er­ates as a re­spon­si­ble re­tail­er and we make every ef­fort to align our­selves with part­ners who hold sim­i­lar val­ues. We have lis­tened to our cus­tomers and have tak­en a de­ci­sion to re­move Ram­saran prod­ucts from our shelves at this time and tem­porar­i­ly sus­pend or­der­ing of this prod­uct. - Massy Stores

As a re­spon­si­ble re­tail­er, Xtra Foods makes every ef­fort to align it­self with part­ners who hold sim­i­lar val­ues to ours. We val­ue our cus­tomer’s feed­back, and we lis­ten to them. As such, we have de­cid­ed to re­move Ram­saran prod­ucts from our shelves at this time and sus­pend the or­der­ing of this prod­uct at all our stores. - Xtra Foods

Sub­se­quent to feed­back from our cus­tomers and lis­ten­ing to sen­ti­ments ex­pressed by the wider com­mu­ni­ty, the West Bees Su­per­mar­ket team has de­cid­ed to re­move Ram­saran prod­ucts from our stores at this time and tem­porar­i­ly sus­pend or­der­ing from this ven­dor. We at West Bees be­lieve in the mes­sage en­shrined in our Na­tion­al An­them that “here every creed and race find an equal place” and look for­ward to the con­tin­ued part­ner­ship with our ven­dors who feel the same. - West Bees Su­per­mar­ket

We have been an or­gan­i­sa­tion based on equal­i­ty and built on the foun­da­tion of our core val­ues. We have re­spect for the laws of T&T and the fun­da­men­tal rights of our cit­i­zens. We em­brace our na­tion­al watch­words and we em­brace, “Every Creed and Race find an equal place.”

As a re­spon­si­ble cor­po­rate cit­i­zen and a mem­ber of the Su­per­mar­ket As­so­ci­a­tion, we join in lis­ten­ing to the clar­i­on call of our cus­tomers and we have re­moved from our shelves with im­me­di­ate ef­fect Ram­saran’s Prod­ucts and tem­porar­i­ly sus­pend or­der­ing of this prod­uct. - Per­sad’s D’ Food King

The JT Al­lum Group of Com­pa­nies stands firm with a ze­ro-tol­er­ance to­wards dis­crim­i­na­tion of any kind. As a re­sult, we have ter­mi­nat­ed all pur­chas­es of the Ram­saran prod­ucts with im­me­di­ate ef­fect and have re­moved all ex­ist­ing stocks from out JTA su­per­mar­kets. The JT Al­lum Group con­tin­ues to fos­ter an en­vi­ron­ment of fair­ness and equal­i­ty, where every creed and race can tru­ly find an equal place. - JT Al­lum Group of Com­pa­nies

Tru­Valu Su­per­mar­ket, as a re­spon­si­ble re­tail­er, val­ues the in­put from all our cus­tomers. We make every ef­fort to as­so­ciate with part­ners of sim­i­lar val­ues to ours. As such, we have de­cid­ed to re­move Ram­saran's prod­ucts from our shelves at this time and sus­pend the or­der­ing of this prod­uct at all our stores un­til fur­ther no­tice. - Tru­Valu Su­per­mar­ket

The Su­per­mar­ket As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go (SATT) takes note of the very deroga­to­ry state­ments made by a mem­ber of the Ram­saran Fam­i­ly.

These di­vi­sive and in­flam­ma­to­ry com­ments do not be­long in our mul­ti-eth­nic so­ci­ety.

We rec­og­nize that giv­en the rich di­ver­si­ty of cul­tures and eth­nic­i­ties in our cos­mopoli­tan na­tion that these ac­tions will not be tol­er­at­ed.

We are ad­vis­ing all our mem­bers that a boy­cott of all Ram­saran’s Dairy Prod­ucts is to be un­der­tak­en im­me­di­ate­ly. This will stay in place un­til such time that the com­pa­ny seeks the ap­pro­pri­ate re­me­di­al ac­tion in a con­sis­tent and sat­is­fac­to­ry man­ner.

SATT rec­og­nizes the keen val­ues which un­der­score the fab­ric of our so­ci­ety and is pre­pared to up­hold the fun­da­men­tal right that every creed and race is giv­en an equal place and will adopt this pol­i­cy un­til fur­ther no­tice. - Su­per­mar­ket As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T