The Criminal Code (Amendment) Bill introduced by Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth, was unanimously supported in Parliament yesterday. It is a bill that aims to prohibit a country from making a postage stamp, a coin or documents bearing the effigy of the British Indian Ocean Territory to advertise the Chagos archipelago. From the beginning of the debate, the leader of the Militant Movement (MMM), Paul Berenger, stressed that the MMM supports this bill. The MP of the Labor Party (PTR), Dhananjay Ramful said that the PTr supports this bill. MP Kushal Lobine did the same on behalf of the Mauritian Social Democrat Party (PMSD).
During the debates, speakers spoke of the efforts undertaken by governments led by former Prime Ministers such as Navin Ramgoolam, Paul Bérenger and the late Sir Anerood Jugnauth, to claim Mauritius’ sovereignty over the Chagos. The MMM MP, Reza Uteem, questioned during the debates why this bill excludes Tromelin. He wanted to know the efforts undertaken by the current government to claim the sovereignty of Mauritius over Tromelin. Replying to him, Tania Diolle stressed that the Chagos case cannot be compared with that of Tromelin whose sovereignty has been claimed by France since 1716. The Minister of Gender Equality, Kalpana Konjoo-Shah, the PPS, Prakash Ramchurrun and the Minister of Technology, Deepak Balgobin as well as the Minister of Transport, Alan Ganoo and the PPS, Tania Diolle, spoke on this bill. They all agree that this bill transcends politics.
