Anil Kumarsingh Gayan (born 22 October 1948 in

Triolet A triolet (, ) is almost always a stanza poem of eight lines, though stanzas with as few as seven lines and as many as nine or more have appeared in its history. Its rhyme scheme is ABaAabAB (capital letters represent lines repeated verbatim) and ...

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label= Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It ...

) is a Mauritian politician and lawyer.

Early life, education and marriage

Anil Gayan's ancestors migrated from

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

when the island was a British colony. He is the son of Socile Boolell (Sir

Satcam Boolell Sir Satcam Boolell GCSK, MP, QC, Kt (September 11, 1920 – March 23, 2006) was a Mauritian politician who served as member of the Legislative Assembly in Mauritius. He died on March 23, 2006 in Curepipe. He was also known as "Somduth" by his ...

's sister) and bus driver Deokaran Gayan. Anil Gayan completed his secondary education at Royal College Port Louis, and was awarded a scholarship in 1968 to study in England as a "laureate". He studied law at the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is a public university, public research university located in London, England and a constituent college of the federal University of London. Founded in 1895 by Fabian Society members Sidn ...

and

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

until 1974. Anil Gayan married Sooryakanti Nirsimloo, an academic of the MGI, whose younger sister is writer

Ananda Devi Ananda Devi Nirsimloo-Anenden, also known as Ananda Devi, (born March 23, 1957) is a Mauritian writer. Biography Ananda Devi Nirsimloo was born the village of Trois-Boutiques, Grand Port District, Mauritius. Her father Balgopal and her mother Sar ...

Nirsimloo-Anenden.

Political career

He was the foreign minister of Mauritius from 1983 until 1986 and from September 2000 until a cabinet reshuffle in December 2003. In 2009, he formed a new group called FNM (Front National Mauricien). Anil Gayan was defeated at the Constituency No.8 by-elections when the FNM participated in such events. Alan Gayan later joined the Muvman Liberater (a splinter group of the MMM) and was elected in the 2014 general elections in Constituency No. 20 (Beau Bassin-Petite Rivière). He was part of Cabinet as Minister of Health (2014-2017) and then as Minister of Tourism (2017-2019).

Legal career

In 1974 Anil Gayan joined the Attorney General’s Chambers as Crown Counsel. Since 1995 Anil Gayan has been a Senior Counsel. In 2008, he was part of

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

mediation in

Guinea-Bissau Guinea-Bissau ( ; pt, Guiné-Bissau; ff, italic=no, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫 𞤄𞤭𞤧𞤢𞥄𞤱𞤮, Gine-Bisaawo, script=Adlm; Mandinka: ''Gine-Bisawo''), officially the Republic of Guinea-Bissau ( pt, República da Guiné-Bissau, links=no ), ...

. Gayan led a 20-member African Union group of observers during the 2010 Rwanda elections.Raghavan, Sudaran (10 August 2010)
Landslide victory for Kagame is predicted in Rwanda's presidential election
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The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', Retrieved October 29, 2010

Controversies

In 2015, the appointment of the head of the Cardiac Center, which is a department under Gayan's ministry, caused some controversy. In May 2016, Gayan sent a "Freedom of Information" email to a newspaper to request the newspaper to provide information about the salary of its staff. The Director of Publications of the newspaper replied by disclosing his salary and commented that the newspaper is a private entity. In June 2016, several Non-Governmental Organizations were concerned about the increase in usage of synthetic drugs in Mauritius while Gayan stated that the situation was not alarming.

References

1948 births Living people Foreign Ministers of Mauritius People from Pamplemousses District Mauritian diplomats Militant Socialist Movement politicians Mauritian politicians of Indian descent {{Mauritius-politician-stub