An article appeared on firstpost.com today which made serious allegations towards the Prime Minister of Mauritius. The article contains heavy usage of racial terms which angered many on social media channels. On my end I tried to get in touch with the Editor in Chief through Twitter and Email but I received no reply.

I wanted to know about the sources of information for the publication. I could not judge the true or false of the article without proper sources. Anyone can write anything but that does not become fact.

Later during the day, I noticed the article created a heavy ruckus on Facebook. People in Mauritius were angered by the racist remarks in the article. I followed some of the comments and landed on the author’s Facebook page. I left a comment on a post where the author shared the Firstpost.com’s article. My comment was simply questions laid to the author about his source of info.

I didn’t receive any reply but instead after a while I could no more access the author’s facebook page.

That was certainly a cheap action. I questioned the level of responsibility over the author’s writings. To confirm my doubts on his biased article I had to dig the Internet a bit. What came out is that the author, Pranay Gupte is a close friend of Dawood Rawat, a figure currently embroiled in a business scandal in Mauritius.

He is also a close friend of Mr. Dawood Rawat, Chairman of the the British American Investment Group here in Mauritius.

The above is taken from Stardock.com where an interview of Pranay Gupte by T. J. Hussain is shared.

Another article on thehindu.com by Pranay Gupte highlights racial remarks and mentions the ex-Prime Minister of Mauritius and Dawood Rawat, while an article on thenational.ae by Pranay praises the achievements of Dawood Rawat.

On that note, I cannot expect a “neutral” opinion by author/journalist Pranay Gupte. I deplore his poor professionalism over a biased article that could potentially disturb public harmony in Mauritius.