During a Weekly Media Briefing by the Official Spokesperson Of Indian Ministry of External Affairs, Mr Arindam Bagchi took the side of Mauritian Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth regarding the Baie-du-Jacotet Landing Station Controversy.
When a reporter from The Wire inquired regarding the nature and intent of the visit of Indian team regarding a survey to the landing station, the official spokesperson said that the Prime Minister of Mauritius, Mr Pravind Jugnauth had already made a statement regarding the same and that he had nothing more to add to that and India’s perspective on that matter stood by that of PM Jugnauth.
Here is a transcript of the conversation:
Reporter: You must have been aware that in Mauritius there is a major political controversy, which has broken out after the resignation of the CEO of the Mauritius Telecom. It was claimed that he was forced by the Prime Minister to give access to a foreign team, to the landing station of the submarine cable there. The Prime Minister said that, it was basically said that for the first time that, it was an Indian team and they had gone for a survey mission. So I just want to know if you can throw some light on what was the nature of the request from the Mauritian Government and what was Indian team doing there exactly?
Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson: There was a query.. I think you mentioned something about the Mauritius one. Look, I don’t know if I have the full details of that, but my understanding is that the Prime Minister of Mauritius has already made a statement and I think you referred to it in your own comment. I really don’t have anything further to add to that. I think that’s good enough from our perspective.
It is to be noted that the whole controversy started with the resignation of Sherry Singh, the former CEO of Mauritius Telecom, where he claimed that the Prime Minister had forced him to give access to the Baie-du-Jacotet Landing Station to a foreign team. The Prime Minister claims that Mauritius Telecom was well informed about the visit and it was an Indian survey team that had visited the landing station.
