Rajesh Jeetah

Rajeshwar Jeetah (born 5 July 1962), and more commonly known as Rajesh Jeetah, is a Mauritian politician.^[1]

Rajesh Jeetah's political career started in December 2003 when he was elected in Constituency No. 7 Piton and Rivière du Rempart during by-elections, defeating rivals Ramprakash Maunthrooa (Alliance MSM-MMM) and Jayeshwur Raj Dayal of Mouvement Démocratique National Raj Dayal (MDN Raj Dayal). These by-elections were triggered by the resignation of Anerood Jugnauth who took up the position of President of Mauritius.^[2][3]

At the 2005 general elections Rajesh Jeetah was elected to the National Assembly in Constituency No. 11 Vieux Grand Port and Rose Belle as a candidate of Alliance Sociale.^[4]

He was elected again at the 2010 general elections as a candidate of Alliance PTR-PMSD-MSM in Constituency No. 10 Montagne Blanche and Grand River South East. Jeetah served as Minister of Tertiary Education, Science, Research and Technology of Mauritius.^[5][6]

Due to numerous scandals which made news headlines, Jeetah did not receive the investiture of any party at the 2014 general elections. At the 2019 general elections Jeetah was a candidate of L'Alliance Nationale in Constituency No. 11 but was not elected as all 3 seats in that constituency were won by candidates of L'Alliance Morisien.^[7][8][9]

Following the November 2024 General Elections, Jeetah was nominated by the Labour Party-MMM government as High Commissioner of Mauritius in London.^[10]

Rajesh Jeetah's brother Sunil has owned the campus of Eastern Institute for Integrated Learning in Management (EIILM) in Mauritius since 2007. Although hundreds of private fee-paying students graduated from the Mauritian campus of EIILM, the University Grants Commission of India does not recognize Indian universities that are located outside Indian territory. Furthermore, as the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) of Mauritius withdrew its support for this campus in December 2015, these graduates' qualifications are not recognised. Other similar institutions include D. Y. Patil Medical College (DDPMC). Rajesh Jeetah defended his brother's institution in Parliament. Dharam Gokhool criticized Jeetah's attempts to blame him for allowing some of the troubled organisations to start operations when Gokhool held the ministerial portfolio.^[11][12]

R. Rughooputh, the former vice-chancellor of the University of Mauritius (UoM), revealed that his contract had been unduly terminated after he refused to support Minister Jeetah's ambition to grow the number of foreign universities based in Mauritius. In 2014, Jeetah even promoted the Ugandan branch of the Open University of Mauritius, which he claimed would be quality assured by British education authorities. ^[13][14] The scandal became known locally as "Université Marron" (or Fraud Campus).^{[15][16][17][18][19]}

In 2012 the Vice Chancellor of the University of Mauritius, Pr Konrad Morgan, was forced to resign following Minister Jeetah's undue interference with university matters. The president of the University of Mauritius Academic and Staff Union (UMASA) Dinesh Hurreeram also reported that the Vice Chancellor was being overpowered by the Registrar, thus making the university dysfunctional.^[20]

A major conflict of interest arose soon after Jeetah's election in Constituency No.10 (Montagne Blanche and Grand River South East) as he started to promote the idea of starting up a medical school in Bel-Air which also happens to be located within the same Constituency. Rajesh Jeetah wanted the staff of the University of Mauritius to bypass procedures and skip steps in order to allow the Swiss-based medical faculty to start dispensing courses within a short period. When the UoM staff refused to comply with Minister Jeetah's orders, he accused them of being unprofessional, although their refusal was based on the lack of basic amenities in Bel Air, and preferred an alternative location in Pamplemousses which was closer to an existing hospital.^[21]