Opposition Leader Kamla Persad Bisseassar is standing firmly behind her decision to write to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, requesting a gift of Covid-19 vaccines.

In a two-and-a-half page statement issued today, Persad Bissessar said she will not apologize for her actions, telling Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh and Foreign and CARICOM Affairs Minister Dr. Amery Browne that she made the move because she felt they weren’t doing their jobs to secure vaccines for citizens of T&T.

“Surely these PNM muppets must know that I have a constitutional duty to ensure the safe welfare of our citizens, especially in times such as these when it is clear that our government has abdicated its urgent responsibility to protect our citizens,” she wrote. 

“How is it that our CARICOM partners have all managed to source vaccine donations from India, yet Trinidad and Tobago has not had a similar arrangement? The country must ask Minister Browne what exactly has he been doing for the past six months?” she asked. 

Persad-Bissessar received heavy criticism from government on Monday for penning the letter, which Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said characterized Trinidad and Tobago in a negative light. 

The Minister said, when asked about the matter during a Covid-19 press briefing, that Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley and Foreign and CARICOM Affairs Minister Dr. Amery Browne had already been in contact with their counterparts in the Indian government. 

“The decision by the Leader of the Opposition to try to insert herself into a matter of ongoing Government-to-Government communication must be seen for what it is, an attempt to position herself to claim in retrospect that her letter was the one that achieved any particular outcome,” the Foreign Affairs Minister said.