“Stay strong, you have a just cause," Bharath told the farmer. He expressed solidarity with them and said he didn't care if his action would affect his political career. “This means more to me than the consequences,” he added.
The day before Bharath and his cabinet colleague, Housing Minister Roodal Moonilal, met with the farmers to resolve the problem.
Moonilal promised compensation at market value for the crops and offered to relocate the farms. However he also said he would continue with plans to build homes on the lands that have been farmed for many years. The farmers accepted the compensation but rejected the relocation offer.
They also called on Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar to intervene as she did earlier in the week when she ordered that the bulldozing of the crops to stop. She was in Brazil at the time and is expected to return home over the weekend.
Bharath - who is a UNC Senator - described the farmers as his extended family and explained that he joined the farmers not to criticise his government or his cabinet colleague but to demonstrate his commitment to farmers and the agricultural sector.
He noted that he had that same commitment as an opposition MP for St Augustine when he stood up against bulldozers in Spring Village in 2008 that were sent in to clear farm lands.
“I myself stood up in front of a bulldozer when they were coming to bulldoze crops in Spring Village therefore I stand with all of you in condemning this action of bulldozing crops in Trinidad and Tobago and destroying food," he said.
The PNM administration stopped the bulldozing at the time
Read the story: Villagers win first round; HDC suspends Spring Village project
Read related story: UNC-A going to court over Spring Village farms
“It is...sacrilege at a time like this to destroy food. Even though I may be the lone voice," he said.
“I will take back that voice to the Cabinet and Prime Minister when she returns, to plead your case because it is farmers who feed Trinidad and Tobago. I will make it my business to speak with her and do my best to convey your views, and that of right-thinking people, to the Cabinet.”
Another politician - Congress of the People (COP) Vice Chairman Vernon De Lima - also joined the farmers. He noted that the People's Partnership government is committed to agriculture.
“PP manifesto’s page 50 states ‘respect for agriculture, farmers and the land’. Government has breached this first rule. The Prime Minister must say something on this at this point,” De Lima said.
De Lima added, “It’s absolutely unacceptable for these crops to be destroyed when food prices are so high. Any right-thinking person will be offended...How in God’s name can you do that when the food is being grown for the public. It’s a political anomaly.”
De Lima said COP members are not bound by collective Cabinet responsibility and they have a right to speak on issues.
He suggested that the new government was following the PNM's plan for housing and wondered why that cannot change. “If we removed plans for the smelter and rapid rail why didn’t we remove these projects planned by PNM also? Why continue things we voted against?”
The farmers have blamed Moonilal for their problems and have demanded that the Prime Minister fire him as housing minister. They are also angry that the housing minister has not apologised for what happened.
From Woodford Square, they walked to the Prime Minister’s Office and delivered a letter to the PM’s national security adviser, Gary Griffith, asking for an urgent meeting with the PM on her return from Brazil. Griffith assured them that he will deliver their letter as soon as the PM returns home.
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