It made pleasant reading in Asian Voice regarding the latest honours list, not by Her Majesty’s Government but by Indian government honouring my two favourite Members of Parliament, MP Barry Gardiner and Bob Blackman who both received much acclaimed honour of Padma Shri, along with two stalwarts, masterly Arun Jaitley and fiercely loyal Sushma Swaraj, who both sadly passed away last year, leaving big vacuum at the top, as both of them were holding high post in PM Modi’s government.
Barry, MP for Brent North, which includes my constituency of Kingsbury, is a popular MP when it comes to helping his constituents, as he has stood by me many times in my hour of need. I interviewed Barry for Asian Voice and India Link soon after he was elected. Unfortunately he lost some of Indian, especially Gujarati votes due to Labour Party’s stand on Kashmir.
Another lustrous ex Labour MP who deserves such an accolade is Stephen Pound, founder member of Labour Friends of India, who did not stand at the last election, disappointing his vast followers across political divide. Both are founder members of “Labour Friends of India” once an active and popular organization which has somehow gone into hibernation recently. Let us hope that under new Labour leader, it will gain its former glory and trust of the Indian Community!
Bob Blackman, Conservative MP for Harrow East, is the darling of British Indian community. He captured the seat, defeating Labour’s popular MP Tony McNulty. Even Navin Shah, a very popular Labour member of London Assembly could not recapture the seat for Labour, Indian voters faithfully standing by him, as he stood by them and India, time and again, making him the most pro India and well informed MP in history of HOC!
Others who deserve similar honour are Gareth Thomas, Priti Patel, Lord Popat and few more. Let us hope AV will provide such good news next year!
Bhupendra M. Gandhi
By email
