For the past ten years or so – since I’ve been on the fringe of British politics, there hasn’t been one week where I haven’t been asked about my political ambitions. At times, I’ve been asked this question on a daily basis – usually coinciding with local and national elections.
The starting point behind every response in the last decade has been to thank the person who’s raised the question. It’s always flattering to hear that someone somewhere believes that you may be good at something. But, at a very early stage I point out that public service is in my community’s DNA, and that Westminster politics is merely one channel to serve.
I speak about my association with local causes, charities, temples etc who day in day out provide phenomenal service to the community – all of whom are working for the wider good of our society. I’ve been part of the founding team of an initiative called ‘National Sewa Day’ which seeks to mobilise thousands of people to do good deeds on 21st November. We hope to have nearly 5,000 people sign-up in the first year, which will grow in leaps and bounds in future years.
Despite my best effort at concluding this discussion, I often get told “there’s so many ethnic minority people in x,y,z constituency, who’d welcome you as a candidate” – in fact, I received an email yesterday from someone who I don’t know asking me to consider standing for the Crawley seat which Laura Moffatt is retiring from, along these lines.
Let me be crystal clear about my position on this. I think it’s a retrograde step to think on these lines and puts back all the progress made, by a couple of decades. We have plenty of examples of fantastic MPs who represent their diverse communities effectively – the likes of Steve Pound, Barry Gardiner, Gareth Thomas, Dawn Butler all come to mind – especially as I live in their neck of the woods. They’ve grasped the issues that my community faces and made effective representations on our behalf. All of them are decent people, who probably understand more about my cultural heritage than I do, and use it to speak on my behalf in the House of Commons.
Let’s also not forget that we also had Ashok Kumar, who represented a largely white constituency in Teeside, Parmjit Dhanda who serves the people of Gloucester, and Shailesh Vara who represents a rural farming seat in Cambridgeshire.
Surely this speaks volumes about our confidence and demonstrates the progress we’ve made.
On the issue of making Parliament more representative, how can any sane person argue against such an ideal in today’s age. I, too, believe that we need more Hindu / Indian / Asian MPs, but I’d want them selected for seats not just because of the “colour of their skin, but because the content of their character”. Let’s put our effort in achieving a more representative parliament by funding and cultivating candidates who are best placed to serve the people of our country, the United Kingdom.
I’m also asked to participate in various discussions regarding representation of ethnic minorities in the boardrooms of our largest private sector companies, which again is an ideal to aim towards, but a friend of mine – who’s a very senior banker in a large investment bank – rounded off his comments on this issue by saying “I actually don’t know whether there is a glass ceiling, as I’ve not been looking up, but rather, have been looking forward.. in achieving my goals.” In the same vein, rather than whinge about the so called glass ceiling in politics, we owe it to future generations to promote participation in the structures that exist – at every level.
As for me, I do believe that Parliament matters greatly. It offers the greatest opportunity to affect change. At this point of my life, I can neither afford – financially – to pursue a political life, nor have the traits required to excel in this sphere. This may change over time, but for now, there may be others who are much better suited.
In the upcoming election, I’m going to actively work to increase civic participation, encourage politicians to fully represent and listen to all their constituents and more importantly to get the communities to vote – because this is the biggest and singularly the most important issue that needs to be addressed in politics today. At such a crucial and close election, the electorate have to exercise their right to vote, a right that many people fought for.
I read on Iain Dale’s blog that in the next Parliament, nearly 50% of Labour MPs will be first-timers and that given the public mood, the Conservatives will also have a huge intake of their own – which presents a huge opportunity to civic groups to inform new MPs, who’ll hopefully be less prejudiced than the current lot to new perspectives on debates and legislation.
A role that I believe to be as important as anything else in modern politics.
For the time-being, thanks for your support and I’ll willingly take your goodwill and money to help fund National Sewa Day.