UNC Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has called out the Gov­ern­ment on In­di­an busi­ness­man Naveen Jin­dal, ques­tion­ing if it was “the Venezue­lans” who put the Gov­ern­ment on to Jin­dal to get the Pointe-a-Pierre re­fin­ery.

“This Gov­ern­ment is tak­ing T&T down a dan­ger­ous path,” she claimed re­gard­ing the re­fin­ery deal, query­ing if Jin­dal was a “go-be­tween” for the Venezue­lan and T&T gov­ern­ments Per­sad-Bisses­sar spoke on the is­sue at Mon­day’s UNC meet­ing at the par­ty’s Ch­agua­nas of­fice.

She slammed the Prime Min­is­ter’s state­ments that he was un­aware Jin­dal was on al­leged cor­rup­tion charges. “Who is vet­ting these peo­ple?!” she asked.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar based her con­cern on ar­ti­cles in In­dia’s press con­cern­ing Jin­dal, in­clud­ing Jan­u­ary 2024 in the Dec­can Her­ald In­di­an news­pa­per.

“It tells us Jin­dal is fac­ing cor­rup­tion and mon­ey laun­der­ing charges in In­dia,” she al­leged, show­ing the ar­ti­cle.

She said Gov­ern­ment came to Par­lia­ment on the an­ti-cor­rup­tion Whistle­blow­er Pro­tec­tion Bill last Fri­day, but by Mon­day was meet­ing Jin­dal and “you don’t know” about the al­leged charges.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said some­thing was “very strange with the deal” on the re­fin­ery, which she said was for elec­tions.

“Gov­ern­ment has claimed that Jin­dal has ac­cess to the crude oil for the re­fin­ery. I ask, where did you all re­al­ly find Jin­dal—in In­dia or in Venezuela?

Ac­cord­ing to Per­sad-Bisses­sar, an­oth­er ar­ti­cle in the March 21, 2024, Busi­ness Stan­dard news­pa­per In­dia stat­ed: “’Jin­dal Steel & Pow­er takes over op­er­a­tion at Venezuela’s largest iron-ore com­pa­ny, the first for a pri­vate-run firm in the South Amer­i­can coun­try’s heavy in­dus­try in over a decade, just months af­ter strik­ing the deal with the Nico­las Maduro Gov­ern­ment.’”

She al­leged Jin­dal has been bor­der-hop­ping be­tween Venezuela and Trinidad, “cut­ting deals,” and ques­tioned if T&T was see­ing a Venezuela-Trinidad-In­dia con­nec­tion.

She called for an­swers on whether any gov­ern­ment mem­ber met Jin­dal in Venezuela be­fore he vis­it­ed Trinidad.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar showed an En­er­gy Min­istry ar­ti­cle where En­er­gy Min­is­ter Stu­art Young re­ceived an “in­tro­duc­to­ry cour­tesy call” from Jin­dal on March 27, 2023.

Young met with Jin­dal at the min­istry’s head of­fice, In­ter­na­tion­al Wa­ter­front Com­plex, Port-of-Spain.

“Mr Jin­dal re­turned 15 months lat­er and met Row­ley, and you’re un­aware he’s on al­leged cor­rup­tion charges?

“They pre­tend­ed they’re on­ly now meet­ing him for the first time. Didn’t Stu­art Young, who’s in the Prime Min­is­ter’s of­fice, al­so tell him of his vis­it? Jin­dal was here in March 2023. Row­ley went to In­dia in May 2024, a year af­ter. Some­thing more is in the mor­tar than the pes­tle.”

Not­ing that the Gov­ern­ment said Jin­dal had ac­cess to the crude oil for the re­fin­ery, she ques­tioned where he was com­ing in from and if the oil he was sourc­ing would be Venezue­lan crude oil. “Is this sanc­tioned oil?” she asked.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar claimed the re­fin­ery deal was an al­leged “cor­rupt cook-up” be­tween the Maduro “nar­co” Gov­ern­ment, T&T’s gov­ern­ment, and Jin­dal, whom she claimed was the “go-be­tween.”

She al­leged the Maduro Gov­ern­ment “in­tro­duced him to (T&T) Gov­ern­ment and is be­hind the re­fin­ery’s ac­qui­si­tion.”

Per­sad-Bisses­sar al­leged that through Jin­dal, the Maduro Gov­ern­ment “will process Venezue­lan crude oil at Pointe-a-Pierre and try to es­cape US sanc­tions. This Row­ley Gov­ern­ment is a part of a scheme T&T will pay a se­ri­ous price for.”

Young: We don’t op­er­ate via back doors

En­er­gy Min­is­ter Stu­art Young, mean­while, said he has not had any dis­cus­sions with the Gov­ern­ment of Venezuela per­tain­ing to any arrange­ments that they may have with In­di­an busi­ness­man Naveen Jin­dal’s com­pa­nies.

Young did so yes­ter­day af­ter Per­sad Bisses­sar called out the Gov­ern­ment on Jin­dal when she spoke at UNC’s meet­ing on Mon­day.

“Mrs Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar should re­alise by now that this Gov­ern­ment does not op­er­ate covert­ly. The fact that the Min­istry of En­er­gy and En­er­gy In­dus­tries’ web­site has a re­lease stat­ing that I met with Mr Naveen Jin­dal in March of 2023 is tes­ti­mo­ny to this.

“Ex­act­ly as that re­lease says, I met with him and, ‘Dis­cus­sions sur­round­ed the ex­plo­ration of op­por­tu­ni­ties for in­vest­ment in the en­er­gy and steel sec­tors for the ben­e­fit of Trinidad and To­ba­go.’ Very trans­par­ent­ly, that was record­ed, and the pop­u­la­tion was in­formed in March 2023.”

Young added, “I have not had any dis­cus­sions with the Gov­ern­ment of the Bo­li­var­i­an Re­pub­lic of Venezuela per­tain­ing to any arrange­ments that they may have with Mr Jin­dal’s com­pa­nies. I dis­cuss with the Gov­ern­ment of Venezuela, mat­ters that per­tain to both Venezuela’s in­ter­est and Trinidad and To­ba­go’s in­ter­est.

“I re­mind the Op­po­si­tion leader that this Gov­ern­ment has se­cured spe­cif­ic OFAC li­cences from the Unit­ed States Trea­sury De­part­ment for two en­er­gy ini­tia­tives that we are se­cur­ing for the fu­ture of Trinidad and To­ba­go, one for the Drag­on gas field and one for the Cocuina-Man­akin field.

“So again, I em­pha­sise that we don’t op­er­ate via back doors the way that Mrs Per­sad-Biss­esar and her col­leagues may. I as­sure the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go that my deal­ings on their be­halves will al­ways be trans­par­ent and in ac­cor­dance with the law. I chal­lenge the leader of the op­po­si­tion to do the same.”