Race panel chief regrets furore

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, APRIL. 23. The chief of the beleaguered Commission for Racial Equality (CRE), Mr. Gurbux Singh has admitted that the Commission's bid to prevent race from becoming an issue in the upcoming general election has boomeranged with political parties using its anti-racism pledge for political propaganda. His comment came as race looked like emerging as a major campaign issue surrounding the Tories' refusal to sign the pledge which, they think, is a Labour ``conspiracy'' to embarrass them.

Reacting to the controversy, Mr. Singh said he was ``deeply saddened'' that a well-intentioned move had turned into cross- party ``squabbling'' on ``who is more or less racist than each other.'' The debate, he told The Times, had shifted from something altogether different from what the Commission had intended. ``I want to see a positive discussion about race relations as opposed to political parties throwing mud at each other,'' he said.

The newspaper, however, was not impressed by what it called Mr. Singh's ``blanket condemnation of politicians'' and argued that the boot was in fact on the other leg. ``It is the nature of his (Mr. Singh's) declaration and the demand that every single M.P. sign up or be denounced for not doing so that has sparked this destructive controversy,'', it said in an editorial. The pledge, which requires all political parties and candidates to promise not to use the race card, has provoked a major row with Tories denouncing it as ``silly'' and ``insulting''. What has particularly upset them is the Commission's move to get individual M.P.s and candidates to sign the pledge even after their party leader, Mr. William Hague endorsed it on their behalf. When the Commission started putting out on its website names of M.P.s who refused to sign it, there was outrage and the move was condemned as a ``witch hunt''.

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