The Betamax fight is as political as it is commercial. Veekram Bhunjun, the brother-in-law of former Labour Minister Rajesh Jeetah, gets a contract to transport Mauritius’ fuel between India and Mauritius. In 2010, no one has a problem with it. The MSM defends it as vigorously as the Labour Party does. But after the MSM breaks with Labour over MedPoint, then suddenly it turns against the Betamax contract too. When it comes to power, one of the first things it does is scrap the Betamax contract, dubbing it ‘illegal’ (was it illegal when Soodhun defended it?). While the Labour Party is sticking to its guns and says that giving such a lucrative contract to a minister’s relative was a bright idea.  The Singapore International Arbitration Centre awards Betamax Rs4.7 billion in 2017. Now the Supreme Court of Mauritius has decided that it was an illegal contract and scraps the SIAC verdict. So now the issue is off to the Privy Council in London.

The State Trading Corporation says that Betamax wants the verdict of the Supreme Court to be ‘suspended’ until the Privy Council decides the issue. The STC says that Betamax is asking for this because it wants to continue to try to get the SIAC award enforced by the Indian Supreme Court. Whatever is the truth of the matter, the STC’s explanations of Betamax’s motivations are not that convincing for the simple reason that if indeed, that is what Bhunjun and Betamax are thinking, it’s an exceedingly weak hand.

Firstly, attempting to ply the pressure through India will be of limited utility and for a limited time. It’s of limited utility because the last time the Indian courts got involved in Mauritius’ oil business in 2017 – when it briefly halted oil shipments out of Mangalore – Mauritius simply turned to Saudi Aramco to weather the storm. It’s of limited time because the contract with Mangalore will be coming to an end in July this year anyway. The Mauritian government has already stated that it intends to turn to international tenders after the expiry of the supply contract with Mangalore. So effectively, post-July, what the Indian courts decide would be irrelevant anyway since the oil will no longer come from Mangalore, but either through other suppliers, such as Aramco, or oil traders and middlemen. An Indian court can decide what it likes, but after July, it will have no way of enforcing anything.

The other reason is that whatever the Indian courts decide would be irrelevant since the Mauritian Supreme Court has already ruled that the Betamax contract is illegal. Suppose an Indian court decides that Mauritius should provide a Rs4.5 billion guarantee to Betamax and chooses to uphold the SIAC decision, would the Mauritian government conceivably be in a position to pledge public money and make such a guarantee to enforce damages for getting rid of a contract that the Mauritian Supreme Court has ruled was illegal to begin with? The Mauritian state is bound by the writ of the Mauritian Supreme Court, not the Indian one.  Betamax cannot realistically expect this kind of eventuality; if it does, it’s delusional, which is why the STC ascribing such an unrealistic motive seems so unconvincing.

What is more likely is that Betamax is afraid that until the Privy Council decides the issue, the government will be all gung-ho to go after Bhunjun and Betamax – and by extension, their rivals the Labour Party. Regardless of how this plays out in the coming weeks and months, this is all just for the gallery. The real decision will still come from the Privy Council, regardless of the stunts that are pulled in the meantime.

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