ABSTRACT
For its first new millennium independence celebrations, Mauritius chose the Prime Minister of India as its state guest. Atal Bihari Vajpayee did not pull mass crowds, as did his more charismatic predecessors, Indira and Rajiv Gandhi, but his visit was packed with emotion and a strong sense of achievement. A rare moment of intense feeling showed the Indian Prime Minister in meditative mood under an ebony tree, with the Mauritian Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam by his side. In 1978, that tree was just a small plant that Vajpayee had sown in the famed botanical Garden of Pamplemousses, a magnificent living legacy of the French period. Mauritius was then known as Isle de France, the Island of France.
