Hindujas: it is now the turn of Tories

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, FEB. 1.After the Labour, it is now the Tories' turn to be drawn into the Hinduja controversy as it emerged that a former Tory Home Office minister worked for the Hindujas as an `adviser on government affairs' after he lost his Parliament seat in the last general election and he was on their payroll when Mr. Srichand Hinduja applied for a passport in 1998.

Mr. Timothy Kirkhope, who is now the Tory Chief Whip in European Parliament, was the Immigration Minister in Home Office in Mr. John Major's Conservative Government, and it is alleged that his contacts in Whitehall and intimate knowledge of how the system works may have prompted the Hindujas to hire him

when they were desperately seeking British citizenship fearing extradition over the Bofors' kickback scandal. He has confirmed that the passport application of Mr. Gopichand Hinduja arrived in the Home Office when he was the minister but denied that he had any conversation with any of the Hinduja brothers about their citizenship.

Mr. Gopichand Hinduja applied for a passport on March 5, 1997 - two weeks before Mr. Major called the general election - and Mr. Kirkhope confirmed that ``I'm pretty sure that this was one of the ones that went through to officials and were left to officials when we left office'' but added that without referring to notes he couldn't recall the details. By the time Mr. Hinduja got his passport in November, the Labour government had come which should clear Mr. Kirkhope of the charge that he may have influenced the decision. But in the politically surcharged atmosphere in the wake of the resignation of Mr. Peter Mandelson, a senior minister, for allegedly lobbying for the Hindujas the revelation has raised questions about the Tories' role in what has come to be known as the `passports-for-favours' scandal.

``The latest development .....spreads the net wider, bringing attention to the Conservatives' links with the billionaire brothers who were first refused passports under the Tories in 1991 and are now the subject of corruption investigations in India,'' The Times commented.

Mr. Kirkhope, who left the Hindujas' job in June 1999 after being elected to the European Parliament, said he did not advise them on government affairs and his work was ``essentially and purely linked to infrastructure issues''. ``If you say I dealt with the (passport) case that is a bit of an exaggeration. The Labour government passed that case,'' he was quoted as saying. ``I had nothing whatsoever to do with any application by SP. I did not know he had made an application.''

According to a Hinduja spokesman, quoted in The Times, Mr. Kirkhope advised them on water and power projects in India.

The Guardian meanwhile carried excerpts from a video of the Hindujas' famous 1999 Diwali function attended among others by the Prime Minister, Mr. Tony Blair, and his wife Cherie who wore salwar kameez. In the video one of the Hinduja brothers is seen and heard as comparing Mr. Blair with `Lord Rama'. ``Hello Lord Rama, you look like Lord Rama...'' According to paper, ``....the lavishly-produced 15- minute film....sent out on a DVD by Srichand Hinduja with his Christmas cards suggests a familiarity beyond that required by a politician at formal occasions.'' The paper says the video also `stars' Mr. Mandelson and Mr. Keith Vaz, battling for his political survival, ``in a round of mutual backslapping with the billionaire brothers...''

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