Tories also 'sponsored' application

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, FEB. 10. Even as Labour politicians are facing flak for dancing to the Hindujas' tune, it turns out that Tories have been equally close to them. On Friday, the former Prime Minister, Sir Edward Heath, a Conservative, admitted that he, along with the Tory treasurer, Lord Feldman, was one of the sponsors of Mr. Gopichand Hinduja's passport application in March 1997.

The application was handled by the then Tory Immigration Minister, Mr. Timothy Kirkhope, who later got a job with the Hindujas and was with them until he found greener pastures in Europe.

However by the time Mr. G. P. Hinduja got his passport in November 1997, the Tories had been thrown out of power and therefore technically the passport was issued by the Labour Government.

Whether it simply stamped the passport already cleared by the Tory administration or made its own decision is not known - but, according to observers, the overlapping role of the two parties says something about the Hindujas' ``harmonious'' political networking.

Sir Edward broke his silence on his links with the Hindujas in a statement to The Times. He said he first met them when they came up with the idea of floating a British `Nobel Prize'. He said he saw nothing wrong in sponsoring Mr. Gopichand Hinduja's passport application and was critical of the new political correctness verging on treating the Hindujas as untouchables. ``He had been living in England for many years and was a very prominent businessman. There seemed every reason why, if he wanted to become a British citizen, he should be considered'', he said.

Sir Edward, who was a member of a trust set up by the Hindujas' at the Cambridge University to give scholarships, reacted sharply to a Cambridge don's demand that the university should not take money from the brothers in view of the allegations of sleaze. ``I don't see why one should object to an organisation which is helping people from India in particular but also other countries''. The newspaper pointed out that Sir Edward's constituency ``received several thousand pounds from the Hindujas in the 1990s but he said he was not paid for his work for the trust.''

On Lord Feldman's role, it quoted a Hindujas' spokesman as saying he had been a ``longstanding family friend going back nearly 30 years'' and that he did not collect any money for the party from them.'' Given the Tories' own links with the family, it is not surprising that they have kept a rather low-profile throughout the passport controversy not pressing it beyond the mandatory criticism of Labour's ``style''.

`Probe contacts'

Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrat MP, Mr. Norman Baker, who broke the ``passports-for-favours'' row demanded in the Commons on Friday that the Hammond inquiry into the affair also look at ``the contacts made between the Hinduja brothers and the members of the Government and the Opposition and members of this House.''

The brothers had ``carved out'' for themselves areas of ``influence'' in the political system, he said. ``Is that carving out of influence in our political system legitimate?''

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