Resh­ma Ra­goonath

Min­is­ter in the Min­is­ter of Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Rudranath In­dars­ingh says he hopes Con­gress of the Peo­ple (COP) ex­ec­u­tives "rep­ri­mand" par­ty ac­tivist Nali­ni Di­al. He said so yes­ter­day while speak­ing with re­porters at the for­mal launch of KC Con­fec­tionery's new Dyno Blass and Ice Blass chew­ing gum prod­ucts at the can­dy com­pa­ny's South­ern Main Road, Cou­va, head­quar­ters.

In­dars­ingh added: "It is re­al­ly a sad day and re­al­ly trag­ic in the sense the com­ments that have been at­trib­uted to Nali­ni Di­al." Di­al has come un­der fire for her com­ments post­ed on Face­book, de­scrib­ing as "ret­ri­bu­tion," the pos­si­ble mur­der of Michelle Coudray-Greaves, daugh­ter of San Fer­nan­do may­or Mar­lene Coudray.

Coudray-Greaves, 39, a moth­er of three, went miss­ing in Ja­maica on June 2. Charred re­mains found in a cane­field in the Mon­tego Bay area ear­li­er this week have not yet been of­fi­cial­ly iden­ti­fied as the miss­ing woman. On Mon­day evening, af­ter news that Coudray-Greaves may have been killed, Di­al, who has been crit­i­cal of the in­hu­mane way stray dogs were killed by the San Fer­nan­do City Cor­po­ra­tion, launched a tirade on Coudray.

She said: "The sins of the fa­thers (moth­er) will fall on the chil­dren." In­dars­ingh said: "I was re­al­ly and tru­ly tak­en aback that some­one could use such a trag­ic sit­u­a­tion and make out­landish com­ments in re­la­tion to such a fam­i­ly sit­u­a­tion. "I would hope that she would be rep­ri­mand­ed by her po­lit­i­cal par­ty.

Di­al, who con­test­ed the lead­er­ship of the COP last year and lost, is known for her strong an­i­mal rights views. Trade and In­dus­try Min­is­ter, Stephen Cadiz, al­so com­ment­ed on Di­al's com­ments. He said it was "ex­treme­ly un­for­tu­nate." He added: "I do not care who you are, I do not care what you did in life, what has hap­pened to Mar­lene Coudray and her fam­i­ly I do not think you can ever, ever make a com­ment like that.

"If the com­ment was made by the per­son, it is very, very sad that is the stage of the pol­i­tics of Trinidad and To­ba­go." Yes­ter­day Di­al's Face­book wall had posts call­ing on her to apol­o­gise to the may­or while oth­ers sup­port­ed her com­ments.