21 January 2010: The Indian Parliamentary delegation currently in Mauritius held a meeting with the Hon Paul Raymond Berenger, Leader of Opposition of the National Assembly at Port Louis yesterday.  Hon Berenger offered his heartfelt condolences for the passing away of Comrade Jyoti Basu who he described as a intrepid leader of the working class in India. Hon Speaker of Lok Sabha, Smt Meira Kumar, who is leading the Indian delegation to Mauritius thanked him for his thoughtful remembrance of the legendary communist and democrat.

Mr. Berenger said that in the coming elections his party the MMM, would go it alone even if the other two main parties of the centre-left were to unite, which he sensed might happen. Smt Kumar expressed her admiration for Mr Berenger’s ideological commitments and also his parliamentary skills she had noted on January 18 when the Indian delegation had sat in the Visitors gallery in the National Assembly when Mr Berenger had put the private notice question to the Prime Minister of Mauritius. Mr Berenger mentioned that he was happy about the remarkable fact that the Speakers of both the Houses – in India and Pakistan – at the moment were women. He also disclosed that in case the MMM came to power in the forthcoming election, they would nominate a women as the Speaker of the National Assembly. He added that feelings of solidarity with India for which he had originally coined the term ‘umbilical relations’ were unanimously shared across all political parties in Mauritius. In fact, he believed that Mauritius must have special relations with countries of origin for all the communities of Mauritius. Smt. Kumar wholeheartedly agreed with his view and added that in the coming years not just the emotional but the economic relations should be strengthened. She could sense that people of Mauritius have the genius of turning what appeared to be irreconcilable differences into points of strength for the nation, a capacity evident in the fact that both the British Parliamentary and French socialist influences in the past had been harnessed for nation building. The Indian MPs from constituencies in Bihar, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan extended their warm invitation for Mr Berenger to visit their respective States.

The delegation visited Ganga Talao and the Le Morne World Heritage Site. At Le Morne, which is a memorial built to the slaves who often preferred jumping to death from a high hill to the indignities of slavery, Smt Meira Kumar laid a wreath to pay her respects to those who had preferred freedom in their acts of suicide to an inhuman social order. ‘To these slaves, we owe the blessing of freedom that we enjoy today’, she said.