By Ranjana Narayan
New Delhi, Jan 14 (IANS): Mauritius is keen to become a "real bridge" for India to invest and connect with the rest of Africa and with Europe, said Showkutally Soodhun, the new vice prime minister of the Indian Ocean island who is of Indian descent and who is proud of his "Hindi roots".
"We want that Mauritius be a bridge for India, a real bridge for India, and through Mauritius they can come and invest and go to Europe and Africa. This is very important," Soodhun told IANS here.
Soodhun, who was in India to attend the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas in Gandhinagar and later in the capital to attend the World Hindi Day celebrations, was full of praise for the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
"This is a new government (in India) and we are also a new government. It is a very dynamic government," he said of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government.
The Mauritius general elections of Dec 10, 2014 brought former prime minister Sir Anerood Jugnauth back into the saddle. Soodhun is the minister of housing and lands in the government.
According to Soodhun, bilateral relations between India and Mauritius were getting "even more cemented, and our economic, social and political links are getting even more closer".
He said though the Mauritius government was very new, "our prime minister has sent me (to India) to go and give a good signal - that we have such high regard for India and are so keen to strengthen our relations".
Soodhun said Mauritius was planning to purchase all petroleum products from India. "All our petroleum products will come from India, worth $1 billion for three years."
In December, the Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) entered into a MoU with STC Mauritius and Indian Oil Corp (IOC) to set up a petroleum terminal at Mauritius.
The JV terminal would be constructed at an investment of around $130 million to facilitate re-export of petroleum products from Mauritius to Indian Ocean Islands and mainland Africa, thereby making Mauritius a petroleum hub while also increasing the oil security of Mauritius.
Soodhun, who gave a speech in Hindi at the World Hindi Day celebrations Jan 10, referred to India as "Bharat Ma".
The Indo-Mauritian population of the island nation is an overwhelming 68 percent of 1.3 million, all descendants of indentured Indian labourers who were taken to work in the sugarcane fields in the former British colony.
Soodhun said Mauritius would support India at international fora and that India and Mauritius were going to work together in all aspects.
The Mauritius minister also said his country would give its full support to India for popularizing Hindi across the world.
"On the world stage, for popularizing Hindi, if there is a need to support Bharat Ma, then Chhota Bharat (as Mauritius is known) will lend its support wholeheartedly," he said in Hindi.
Soodhun said he felt great pride in his Hindi roots. He confessed that he was an "aashiq" of Hindi, along with other languages like English, French, Arabic, Bhojpuri and Swahili.
He said Mauritius had launched a Hindi union in colleges and universities to teach Hindi and popularize it. He said Mauritius wanted to spread Hindi, which was "as sweet as ganna" (sugarcane juice), across the world.
Soodhun said both Mauritius and India want to give their people "roti, kapda aur makan" (bread, clothes and houses). "This is what we are doing."
Soodhun met Modi and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and other ministers during his India visit.