By PRANAY GUPTE (Published in The Hindu, April 2, 2010)  PORT LOUIS, Mauritius – When Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam of Mauritius dissolved the island-state’s 70-member National Assembly late Wednesday evening and called for new elections on May 5, there seemed to be an element of political drama to his announcement.   The drama, of course, was deliberate, but it had little to do with the election announcement itself: everybody in Mauritius knew that polls would be...

By Pranay Gupte (Published in Khaleej Times, April 12, 2010)    Take away the stunning greenery and jagged mountains from Mauritius, take away the rolling pastures, take away the vast sugarcane plantations, and take away the bustling hamlets with their narrow twisting roads – and one could be forgiven for feeling that this is Dubai-in-the-Indian-Ocean, a clean place where waves wash gently on the shores and enterprise is encouraged.   Both entities have po...

PORT LOUIS, Mauritius -- Navin Ramgoolam of Mauritius, who’s leading a three-party coalition in the national parliamentary election that is scheduled for May 5, is determined to win a second consecutive term as this island-nation’s prime minister.   Anecdotal observation suggests that he’s likely to win and that, in his next five-year term, the 1.3 million people of Mauritius expect him to lead a government that will heal the growing rifts between the country’s...

By Pranay Gupte (Published in Khaleej Times, November 10, 2010)   President Barack Obama of the United States spoke fulsomely about shared values between his country and India of tolerance and cultural understanding, and of sustainable economic development during his three-day visit to this week. But he could just as well have been talking about the United Arab Emirates.   Of course, the demographic scales are different. The ethnicities are different. And the political e...

REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: WILL NAVIN RAMGOOLAM COME INTO HIS OWN? (Published in The Hindu, India, May 9, 2010)   By Pranay Gupte   For an island-nation of barely 1.3 million people who live on a speck of verdant but craggy territory in the Indian Ocean, Mauritius is more riven by the politics of communalism than one might expect in a tiny democracy. Last week’s parliamentary election showed that the enthusiasm of voters for the ballot box notwithstanding, the chal...

Mauritius wants more Indian participation in economic development (Published in The Hindu, India, May 8, 2010)   By Pranay Gupte   Deputy Prime Minister Ahmed Rashid Beebeejaun says that Mauritius wants greater participation by Indian companies in developing the infrastructure of this island-nation.   “Our bilateral relations have always been excellent, but we feel that there’s much more room for collaboration,” Mr. Beebeejaun said in an inte...

ELECTIONS IN MAURITIUS OFFER PROMISING PROSPECTS FOR INDIA (Published in The Hindu, India, May 7, 2010)   By Pranay Gupte   Now that the three-party alliance of Navin Ramgoolam has won 41 of the 60 seats in the Mauritius national parliament – more than double the number of Paul Berenger’s leftist Mouvement Militant Mauricien – there is general agreement that the 63-year-old former physician and lawyer has obtained a powerful mandate to implement economi...

THE POSSIBILITIES FOR MAURITIUS AND INDIA   By Pranay Gupte (Published in The Hindu, India, May 5, 2010)   Today (May 5) is Election Day here in Mauritius, and there being no electronic tallying of votes the winners and losers for the island-nation’s 62-member national parliament won’t be known for several hours after the polls close at 6 o’clock in the evening because each ballot cast by 880,000 eligible voters – out of the country’s 1.3 mi...

THE FLURRIES OF VOTING DAY IN MAURITIUS (Published in The Hindu, India, May 6, 2010)   By Pranay Gupte   When I covered politics for The New York Times a very long ago in the United States and in other countries that allowed for adult franchise, a wise old editor would often caution against making projections, particularly on Election Day. Of course, those times were before smart pollsters brought their sophisticated techniques to gauge exit polls and voter sentiments, a...