It is one of the biggest mass demands for a minister’s resignation. After the ultimatum of last Wednesday, members of the parliament and from the three opposition parties, namely the PTr, MMM and PMSD, have peacefully voiced out in front of Emmanuel Anquetil building, where the Ministry of Health is housed, on Friday 17th December before the parliamentary session. With pages printed “Jagutpal-Demission”, their opinion is unanimous, that is, the current government is no longer legitimate to remain in power.
This massive demand for Dr Kailesh Jagutpal’s resignation follows the contract awarded to CPN Distributors for the purchase of 999,000 tablets of Molcovir, a generic of Molnupiravir, for Rs 79,840,080 validated on December 7.
“The Prime Minister cannot be unaware of this. And clearly Minister Jagutpal has to be aware of it as he had to sign the final document. The guy must pack and go. In the name of morality, he must resign and in legitimacy, he has no place in the Government House, which is the temple of democracy. The parliamentary and extra-parliamentary symbiosis exists to ensure that democracy is not flouted. The population has already decided on the sentence of the Minister of Health“, said Arvin Boolell. He denounced both the fact that several people linked to the case have not yet been questioned and an ‘Insider Dealing’ that involves members of the government sharing family ties. He also mentioned compromising documents on the same case. “Our comrade, Eshan Juman has other evidence on the case after receiving the answers to his questions from Optimus laboratories“.
For the Opposition Whip, Patrice Armance, “the population is fed up. He must resign and he does not have the moral right to be in parliament this Friday when there are civil servants who are being suspended”.
This demonstration is meant to be a symbolic pressure on the government. For Rajesh Bhagwan, a MP of MMM, “thanks to Xavier Duval’s denunciation, the whole population has been alerted. It is a national but also international unanimity”. He speaks of 2021 as a black year but maintains that in 2022, “there will be other events to demand the rapid step down of the current government.”
Rama Valayden, Bruneau Laurette and other demonstrators made their voices heard, this time in front of the parliament for the same unanimous claim. A strong police presence was spotted at the scene.
