New 'revelations' in Hinduja case

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, JULY 15. The Hindujas' ``affair'' returned to the front pages today following the publication of a new book which accuses Downing Street of not disclosing the full extent of its links with the controversial Indian businessmen and claims that the former Cabinet Minister, Mr. Peter Mandelson, was made a scapegoat when he was forced to resign for allegedly trying to speed up Mr. S. P. Hinduja's application for British citizenship.

The Observer, which first broke the Hindujas' story early this year alleging that Mr. S. P. Hinduja was given a British passport as a favour for his family's one million pound donation to the Millennium Dome, went to town this morning with the new ``revelations''. It said these cast ``a fresh cloud over Mr. Tony Blair's administration'' and had prompted calls for reopening of the Hammond inquiry which looked into the Hindujas' passport affair and cleared everyone of any wrongdoing.

In the event, however, the newspaper quoted only one Tory MP - the Shadow Cabinet Office Minister Mr. Andrew Lansley - as saying ``as every new piece of evidence comes out about the links between the Prime Minister and his office and the Hindujas, it is clear that more questions should be answered.'' It said the disclosures in Mr. Andrew Rawnsley's book ``Servants of the People'' - a critique of New Labour and the Blair administration - reinforced the belief of Mr. Mandelson's allies that he was ``sacrificed by Mr. Blair to stop the (Hindujas) scandal reflecting on No 10.''

Mr. Rawnsley is The Observer's chief political commentator and ``Servants of the People'' was first published last year. The new material, raising questions about Downing Street's links with the Hinduja brothers, is contained in an updated version. The issue highlighted by the paper is that contrary to its attempts to distance itself from involvement with the Hinduja brothers, Downing Street, in fact, actively pursued them for making a donation to the Dome after they showed interest in the project. ``According to Peter Mandelson's allies it was actually No 10 that first initiated the involvement of the Hindujas in the sponsorship of the Dome,'' Mr. Rawnsley says. He quotes Mr. Mandelson's supporters as saying that the Prime Minister's chief of staff, Mr. Jonathan Powell, officially instructed him to contact the Hindujas in connection with the donation. The ``instruction'' was conveyed through an ``official minute''. ``Written in Powell's typically blunt style, the chief of staff told Mandelson that the Prime Minister wanted him to follow this up without delay. Despite the obvious bearing of this memo on the (Hindujas passport) affair, the minute was kept from the Hammond inquiry...,'' Mr. Rawnsley writes.

Soon after the donation was made, Mr. S. P. Hinduja applied for a British passport and Mr. Mandelson made some helpful inquiries on his behalf - and it was his confused recollection of those events that led to his resignation. After the story broke, he was summoned to Downing Street and told to resign even as - according to Mr. Rawnsley - Mr. Mandelson pleaded with Mr. Blair that this would end his political career: ``That's my life, Tony.''

According to Mr. Rawnsley, who gives a detailed account of the swift countdown to Mr. Mandelson's exit, the ``surreal scene'' at Downing Street that morning in January this year captured the ``high politics and low betrayals'' of New Labour.

The thrust of Mr. Rawnsley's ``revelations'', most of them public knowledge, is that Mr. Blair and other high-profile Labour leaders continued to sup with the Hinduja brothers knowing they were being investigated for alleged corruption in India.

``New Labour's dangerous liaison with the Hinduja brothers dated back to what might be characterised as its `Midas period' when rich men were keen to insinuate themselves into the new order and Tony Blair was anxious to plug himself into the wealthy and well- connected,'' he says recounting the various Hinduja functions that Labour's leading figures attended.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : International
Previous : China favours 'strategic triangle'
Next     : NRI industrialists optimistic of summit