BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – PRIME MINISTER the Rt. Hon. Dr. Denzil Douglas said that the same persons who invited him to India also invited the Antigua and Barbuda Member of Parliament, Hon. Asot Michael, to that country.
Dr. Douglas was at the time responding to a caller today (Apr. 24) on his ‘Ask the PM’ radio programme at ZIZ, who asked in what capacity did Asot Michael travel with him to India, was he a part of the PM’s mission and why him and not a member of the Baldwin Spencer’s Cabinet?
In response Dr. Douglas named the members of his delegation in which Michael was not mentioned.
“With regard to my visit to India, the official delegation to India consisting of the Prime Minister which led the delegation, my Senior Assistant Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister Miss Beverly Knights and our High Commissioner His Excellency Mr. Kevin Isaac of the London High Commission. I understand that the same persons who invited me to visit India also invited Mr. Asot Michael and so the Hon. Asot Michael was there as a result on that same visit with me.”
The Prime Minister briefly explained the reason for the Member of Parliament’s visit at the same time as his and noted that he did not see anything strange about it.
“Mr. Michael is a Member of Parliament and while he was there he sought in several different ways to see how economic development activity and investment opportunities would have been found for his constituents, the people of Antigua…whichever. So, I do not see anything strange about that.”
Dr. Douglas also noted that he would have been happy to travel with anyone from the Antigua/Barbuda government or a member of the opposition in St. Kitts and Nevis, or even a member of this Federation’s private sector.
“If anyone from the Baldwin Spencer administration was invited by the same source to visit India, definitely I would have been happy to travel and to be on that visit with that person of the Baldwin Spencer administration.
“…Likewise, if someone, I am sure, from the opposition or someone from the private sector here was invited by the same source to travel to India at the same time when I was going, I am sure that we would have been very happy to travel together and to make the necessary visits and discussions together as we have done in the past. I see nothing strange therefore about that particular visit.”
Earlier in this month, Dr. Douglas led a three-member delegation to India on what was described in a press release from the Communications Unit of the Prime Minister as an “Official Working Visit”.
He had visited the Golden Temple of Amritsar and later addressed a group of businessmen to whom he highlighted “the symbolic importance of the visit and stressed the universality of God, religious tolerance and faith”.
Dr. Douglas also attended a Business Banquet where he met with over 100 Indian industrialists and business personnel to discuss the possibilities of developing partnerships between the business communities in India and St. Kitts and Nevis.
According to an article published on April 9 by the Lovely Professional University (LPU), Dr. Douglas, accompanied by the Federation’s High Commissioner to London, Kevin M. Isaac, and Antigua’s Foreign Affairs Minister Asot Michael visited that institution of higher learning to explore bilateral collaborative efforts for the promotion of education.
Following the PM’s visit to the Asian country, former minister of government and independent writer Dwyer Astaphan wrote an article headlined “BUSTED IN INDIA” which was published by four media houses in the Caribbean including SKNVibes.
In that article, Astaphan questioned the purpose of Michael’s visit and asked a number of questions including, “Who paid for Mr. Michael’s ticket? Who put him up and fed him in India and along the way there and back? Was it the Government of India? And if so, will India feel that it’s been taken for a ride by our Prime Minister and his sidekick? Will India now seek an apology from Dr. Douglas and look to make an apology of its own to the Government of Antigua & Barbuda?
“If it’s the Government of St. Kitts & Nevis that paid to get Mr. Michael to India and back, why? And how much money belonging to the taxpayers of St. Kitts & Nevis, in cash and kind, has Denzil Douglas spent on Asot Michael to date?"
Since then, Michael had threatened to take legal action against Astaphan and the media houses that published the article written by him.
In a letter to Astaphan, copied to the four media houses and dated April 17, 2012, Michael said he is seeking a public apology and a retraction of the viciously inaccurate, wantonly slanderous and deliberately harmful article that the former minister wrote.
He noted that should Astaphan fail to comply with his demands, his attorneys in St. John’s and Basseterre would commence legal action against him and the media houses in one week.
However, when contacted by this media house for a comment, Astaphan said, “I put this matter in the hands of my attorneys…they will deal with it appropriately”.
