Jugnauth: The Difficult Path For Survival
Mauritius PM Pravind Jugnauth has a difficult task ahead of him this week. A crucial week for him but also for the country which is reeling from the recent allegations of betrayal in the cyber espionage case.
The PM’s largest financial backers in India are not showing enthusiasm in their support for him in this conjuncture. There are talks of embarrassment in New Delhi in the wake of the sniffing allegations.
After denials, there came the alleged evidence of three Indian nationals leaving the Mauritius Telecoms building after carrying out a hacking job on the secure servers of Telecoms.
The events of last week and India’s embarrassment in this affair tells us a few things. First, it is possible that India was aware of the hacking job. Second, India’s silence is a possible confirmation that New Delhi is not going to defend Jugnauth in this case.
In an earlier article, we reported that a succession battle in India is looming and two main actors who are PM Narendra Modi’s supporters are putting pressure on Jugnauth.
Amit Shah, one of the most powerful ministers in Modi’s cabinet, is expanding his reputation beyond the vast Indian nation and he together with Yogi Adityanath are handling the ‘Mauritius’ portfolio for the Indian government.
Mauritius remains a key element in India’s fight against China in the region. The taking over of the Agalega Island is an example how the tiny Indian Ocean republic is important for New Delhi.
The silence of these political heavyweight in the sniffing episode speaks louder against Jugnauth. In the event they defend the latter, India will have some explanations to do. First, if India denies any involvement, the question is how did the sniffing happen without New Delhi’s knowledge?
The point of the matter is for who did the Indian ‘hackers’ do the spying for? And for what purpose? What did data did the collect and what are they going to use it for? We reported that the tapping was to collect data on China’s involvement in the region. It could be bigger than just tapping into Safe City to spy on individuals.
National impact
The end of Mr. Jugnauth’s reign should be right around the corner for his detractors, the opposition parties, and the online citizens who are against him.
For his opponents, the opposition parties and the netizens who are against him, the end of reign of Mr Jugnauth should be near. The opposition is trying to rally all opposition parties into one platform to force Jugnauth to quit. The PM has never seen that vulnerable since he took power.
But the latest reports are there are rising tensions in the country, with government figures and supporters playing the racial cards to rally support for the PM.
But some Hindu organisations are not playing along with the racist slurs, with the Ravived movement preventing Jugnauth from delivering a speech at a ceremony this weekend.
None of the Ravived Ministers in the Jugnauth cabinet were allowed to speak because once they open their mouths, the crowd would either protest or press with questions on the ‘sniffing’ incident and the impact it has on national integrity and security.