Congress of the People (COP) political leader Winston Dookeran says he is convinced that Tuesday’s meeting between Prime Minister Patrick Manning and Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday would lead to a deal regarding the beleaguered Hindu Credit Union (HCU).

Dookeran did so in an interview with the Sunday Express yesterday as he made reference to Manning’s use of the phrase ’we shall not fall’ in his response to the contribution of Diego Martin West MP Dr Keith Rowley, during the debate on the act that validated the Commission of Enquiry into the Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago (UDeCOTT) and the local construction sector two weeks ago.

’What they are going to discuss is the HCU matter... Watch for a deal to be made so that ’we shall not fall’, meaning Panday and Manning shall not fall against all challengers,’ Dookeran said.

In a separate interview yesterday, Panday said he did not plan to raise the HCU matter as it is still being addressed by Parliament.

During an address he delivered at the ASJA Boys School on Tuesday night, Dookeran alleged that Manning defended both the People’s National Movement (PNM) and the United National Congress (UNC) against attacks from the faction led by Opposition MPs Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, Jack Warner and Winston ’Gypsy’ Peters (the Ramjack faction) and Rowley during the debate on the validation act.

In his response to Rowley’s criticism of the Government’s defence of UDeCOTT, Manning accused the Diego Martin West MP of being in an alliance with the Ramjack faction.

On Tuesday night, Dookeran described both Manning and Panday as the ’two major gatekeepers’ and said ’there were some coded messages that were passing through Parliament and Rienzi’ between the two political figures.

’In Parliament, the prime minister was saying that I will defend you in the UNC and I will defend the PNM; we shall not fall-meaning the UNC and the PNM. And Mr Panday returns the favour and says thank you very much; I will now support the executive presidency in Trinidad and Tobago. That is high-level diplomacy when leaders want to negotiate their positions,’ Dookeran said on Tuesday night.

He reiterated those sentiments yesterday as he said he had called for the intervention of the Deposit Insurance Corporation (DIC) as soon as the extent of HCU’s troubles were made public as he said ’all depositors must be dealt with equally, and the State has a responsibility to unravel the situation’. -JB