Ealing North
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Steve Pound MP Ealing North |
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From snowy Sunderland to impressive India April 2006 - Gazette Article So there I was in the broiling heat of Kolkata – formerly Calcutta – trying to make serious conversation with the Deputy High Commissioner when all I could think about was the snow on the pitch at Sunderland which was about to see the Fulham match called off with west London’s finest one nil up. Sadly the news was swiftly relayed that the cunning Maccams had somehow brought an impermeable blanket of snow to a country that was basking in warm spring sunshine everywhere else. Did I suggest witchcraft? Didn’t The Raven King rule from the northeast somewhere? I banished thoughts of Fulham from my mind and turned to the matters at hand. Certain carping correspondents will be relieved (or not) to learn that my week in Delhi and Kolkata incurred no expense to the UK taxpayer. With half a dozen Parliamentary colleagues I was to meet the Commerce and Industry Minister, Kamal Nath, the External Affairs Minister of State, Anand Sharma and Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran. I hope that we did our bit for the ever more important trade relationship between India and the UK and our visit to a new call centre run for HSBC gave us the opportunity to see the reality of outsourcing from the perspective of the staff who answer our ‘phones round the clock. Important as these and several other visits were I returned to Ealing with memories of two extraordinary people who I will never forget. Delhi is a state as well as a capital city and it is run by Chief Minister – Sheila Dikshit MP. This amazing woman, physically slight and appearing frail, is one of the toughest politicians I’ve ever met. Apart from her achievement in bringing parks and green spaces to Delhi she has overseen the construction of a tube system that is immaculately clean and a source of immense pride to passengers and staff. She has brought the next Commonwealth Games to Delhi and she has implemented the conversion of the entire city’s transport to Compressed Natural Gas (or LPG as we know it here). Like a rather more charming version of our own dear Mayor she has gone where most politicians feared to tread and has brought in massive changes while keeping public support and was re-elected two years ago with little opposition. As recently as August 1990 she was in gaol after leading the protest movement against atrocities then being committed against women and when I asked her about this experience she said that the cause was just and her education at the Convent of Jesus and Mary had prepared her for most things that life could throw at her. In Kolkata I met many of the Communist Party Ministers who have run the State for 28 years and even attended a few rallies where the hammer and sickle banners brought back some memories! However I will always remember a meeting in the vast ornate Governor’s Mansion with HE Mr.Gopalkrishna Gandhi, Governor of West Bengal. To be the grandson of one of the greatest and most influential men of the 20th.Century imposes an immense burden of expectation but Gopal Gandhi has not only coped with this but exceeded it. I’ll never forget our conversation or the experience of the new economically booming confident India that is such a valued friend and trading partner to the UK. An unforgettable country and some amazing people. I’m saving up to go again – but perhaps not in the football season. |
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| Disclaimer | Copyright | Designed by Bassam Mahfouz. Promoted by Julian Bell, The Labour Party, Ruskin Hall, 16 Church Road, W3 8PP on behalf of Steve Pound MP |
