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LONDON: An Indian-born British civilian servant has recovered himself unwittingly nether occurrence connected societal media implicit the arguable Chagos deal.Dr Francis Vijay Narasimhan Rangarajan was calved successful Delhi and educated astatine Cambridge University wherever helium obtained a master’s successful maths and PhD successful astrophysics.Since March 2024 helium has been main enforcement of the Electoral Commission. Before that helium led the negotiations implicit the Chagos woody successful his relation arsenic a director-general astatine the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO). The Chagos deal, agreed successful May 2025, is opposed by the Conservatives and Reform UK, and a ample fig of the British public.On Sunday nighttime Rangarajan’s sanction was trending alongside “Chagos Deal” connected X aft it was revealed helium negotiated the woody to manus sovereignty of the Chagos Archipelago, which Britain owns, to Mauritius, and past wage Mauritius millions of pounds a twelvemonth to lease backmost the strategical Diego Garcia subject base, utilized by US and UK forces.At the clip of going to press, the FCDO had not responded to a petition for comment.Journalist and erstwhile Tory MEP Daniel Hannan wrote connected X: “Every erstwhile curate I person spoken to blames the Chagos fiasco connected Vijay Rangarajan, the applicable FCDO official. But, successful Britain, civilian servants are ne'er blamed for thing and, indeed, helium is present moving the Electoral Commission, which makes MPs reluctant to criticise him.”Former Tory MP Douglas Carswell wrote connected X: “Vijay Rangarajan should beryllium summoned to the barroom of the House to explicate his asinine deal.” British governmental commentator Nick Dixon commented: “So we fto an Indian springiness distant our territory to a bulk Indian country? Did we suffer a warfare oregon something?”An relationship called “Basil the Great”, with 265k followers, wrote: “INDIAN CIVIL SERVANT BEHIND CHAGOS DEAL. Vijay Rangarajan calved successful New Delhi has been revealed arsenic the antheral down the full Chagos islands fiasco. An Indian giving distant British territory to Mauritius, a bulk Indian state. WHY ARE FOREIGNERS RULING OVER US?”The Chagos negotiating team, led by Rangarajan, “overstepped its little and offered Mauritius excessively much”.
“Officials were freewheeling,” said 1 governmental source, according to the UK Times.Last week US president Donald Trump had said giving distant the onshore was “an enactment of large stupidity”.Although the pact handing implicit sovereignty was signed successful May 2025, the measure has not been ratified successful UK’s parliament. The Tories connected Friday tabled a question successful the House of Lords requiring the govt to corroborate that the Chagos woody did not breach the existing 1966 UK-US pact governing the usage of Diego Garcia. Later that time the measure was removed from Monday’s bid paper.India supports the deal. Last Sept PM Modi had called the Chagos woody “a historical milestone for Mauritius’s sovereignty”.
