Mauritius Telecom CEO, who leaked Indian team visit, under lens for China links
An embarrassing relationship between Chinese technology company Huawei and former CEO Mauritius Telecom could have a major impact on Indian national security, if it wasn’t for the Mauritius government who stated the war on Huawei who had greatly penetrated the telecommunications sector in the country. Rumor Mills began working overtime immediately after Sherry Singh resigned as Chief Executive Officer of the National Telecommunications Company Mauritius last month after leading the company for more than seven years.
In a letter to MT employees, Singh said he could not continue as CEO without “sacrificing my values”, adding that it was “not a choice” for him. He later, in two separate interviews, leaked about the visit of the Indian team conducted a survey at the island country at the request of Prime Minister Mauritius Pravind Jugnauth.
He claimed that Jugnauth had “forced” him to allow “Indian team” access to the facility with the aim of installing “sniffing devices”.Singh’s claim triggered speculation about the role of India but Julyth was frank in the government’s position.
Not only PM Mauritius condemned the opposition parties to give Aspersi to India, but he also highlighted the security issues faced by the island country. Jungnauth said in a statement that he personally approached Prime Minister Narendra Modi “to send a competent team for this survey.”
He added, “At Mauritius, we don’t have technicians for this survey, but even if we do it, we prefer to go for this Indian technician team.”
At the regular briefing, the external ministry spokesman Arindam Bagchi said that Jugnauth’s statement regarding the controversy was “quite good” from the Indian perspective.
The issue of contract allocation to Huawei under the Sherry Singh era pointed at an unsure alliance between the executive and the Chinese government. Some Senior MT executives have expressed serious objections to certain processes during the contract allocation, according to local media reports.
During the 2006-07 period, a contract valued at hundreds of millions of rupees was given to Huawei, who skyrocketed up to billions of rupees under Singh. Former MT CEO is accused of using selective offer training to help Huawei expand his business. The more problematic aspect of the relationship between MT and Huawei is the management of the data center, which is the responsibility of Huawei.The Special Department of Central Criminal Investigation in the country has questioned Singh for three possible violations: Violations of Information & Communication Technology Law (ICTA), diffusion of false news and defamation of criminal names.
