Facing criticism over his meeting with Indian businessman Naveen Jindal to discuss a deal related to the sale of the Petrotrin refinery, Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley says he is “set on ensuring the Opposition Leader does not undermine and derail what the government is doing for the people of this country.”

Mr. Jindal, a former government MP in India, is among 13 people charged with corruption, criminal misconduct, cheating and criminal conspiracy on Friday in connection with suspected irregularities in the allocation of a coal block.

Responding to criticism from the UNC, Dr. Rowley quipped that if the Opposition Leader is concerned with Mr. Jindal’s corruption charges, she ought to first address similar charges facing her Chief Whip, Pointe-a-Pierre MP David Lee.  (Lee was charged with misbehavior in public office and Con­spir­a­cy to de­fraud the gov­ern­ment back in 2022, re­lat­ed to the pur­chase and sale of a Mer­cedes-Benz.)

Speaking at a Breakfast Meeting on Wednesday, the Prime Minister accused the Opposition of attempting to dissuade foreign investment to T&T- something he sees as ironic given the constant clamoring about the need for direct foreign investment.

After a meeting with Mr. Jindal at the Diplomatic Centre last week, the Prime Minister said Indian steel producer Jindal Steel and Power “is interested in the potential of the refinery”.

“We have a refinery which has not been operating since 2018 and we said from day one, it’s available to the world if there is anybody or any agency who would like to use it, if you have oil and you want to operate a refinery, there is one in Trinidad and Tobago that the Government is not operating,” the Prime Minister said.

But Opposition Leader Kamla Persad Bissessar, at a UNC meeting on Monday, raised questions about whether the affiliation with Jindal was in some way linked to Venezuela.

She read: “Jindal Steel and Power Ltd has taken over operations at Venezuela’s largest iron-ore complex, the first for a private-run firm in the South American country’s heavy industry in over a decade, just months after striking a deal with the Nicolás Maduro government. So, what we are seeing is a Venezuela, Trinidad-India connection. Was it the Venezuelans who put the Rowley Government on to Mr Jindal to get the Petrotrin refinery?” she asked.

The Cabinet will soon establish a committee to assess the proposals for purchase of refinery, with a decision to come by the end of August, according to the PM.