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| Gone ethnic: Theresa May in “a little something from” her wardrobe |
Dress rehearsal for the prime ministerial job
Mrs Theresa May’s height is six feet but that is not reason why the British home secretary is walking tall these days. After she made a speech earlier this month in which the home secretary strayed well beyond her ministerial brief, there was widespread comment that Mrs May was putting herself forward as a possible successor to David Cameron as Tory Party leader in case he had to step down after losing the next general election.
As home secretary, Mrs May has to deal with such difficult issues as immigration, terrorism, and law and order. Last week, in a move that may make or mar her career, she announced that the United Kingdom Border Agency, which is responsible for immigration controls and visas, had failed to do its job and was being split into two.
Mrs May has also had a long running but unsuccessful battle with the courts over her attempts to have a radical Jordanian cleric, Abu Qatada, deported to his home country. Last week, the courts ruled for a second time that expelling Qatada might infringe his human rights.
Mrs May, who is 56 and has been chairman of the Conservative Party, has expressed sadness that she and her husband have been unable to have children. “It just didn’t happen. I mean, this isn’t something I generally go into, but things just turned out as they did. I think if you talk to anybody who would like to have had children… I mean, you look at families all the time and you see there is something there that you don’t have.”
Photographers usually focus on Mrs May’s feet since she is known to have a weakness for kitten heeled shoes. Once upon a time, it caused a stir if a senior woman politician wore Asian clothes but for Mrs May it is now routine to do so for ethnic functions. For example, at the recent release of the Asian Rich List, she was invited to do a twirl on stage so that the audience of 800 could have a better view of her dark red salwar-kameez.
This was no big deal for her, the home secretary indicated. She had not hired the outfit because it was part of her wardrobe, she revealed to much applause.
Mrs May is considered by the BBC to be the most powerful woman in Britain after the Queen. Who knows but she may one day preside over a Cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street, in a revealing Bollywood outfit. Behind her choli may be a tough package of anti-terrorism measures.
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| Desi designs: Robina Shafiq |
Colour coded
Since British politics can be all about attitudes to colour, it is perhaps worth revealing that Theresa May’s favourite is turquoise.
I have this from no less an authority than Robina Shafiq, who advises Mrs May on her Asian clothes.
“I keep all her measurements and have her clothes made to measure,” Robina tells me.
I have seen Mrs May in a turquoise sari and must say she looks more elegant than, for example, the Indian home minister, whose name escapes me for the moment, in common I suspect with most Indians across the diaspora or perhaps even in India.
Wishing as always to be helpful I have suggested to Robina that Mrs May experiment with a change in colours. Robina promised she will faithfully pass on my recommendations to the home secretary that she try a cream sari with a red border with a jangle of keys tucked into her waist.
This could indeed be the perfect attire for the home secretary when attending the next anti-terrorism summit of COBRA (Cabinet Office Briefing Room A).
Robina couldn’t immediately visualise the colour combination but nodded brightly when I asked if she had seen Devdas and especially the saris worn by Paro (Aishwarya Rai) and Chandramukhi (Madhuri Dixit) as they break into a rendering of Dola re dola.
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| Brothers in arms: Ed (left) and David Miliband |
Epic rewritten
In the British version of the Ramayana, the younger brother does not place his elder brother’s brogues on the throne and keeps the gaddi warm while Dada is in exile. Overcome by ambition, the younger brother knifes his elder brother in the back and becomes prime minister.
To many it certainly seems that way in the Labour Party where David Miliband was all set to succeed Gordon Brown as leader after the last general election in 2010. Instead, his treacherous younger brother, Ed, 43, sneaked in from behind in the middle of the night and stole the leadership with the help of support from hard Left trade unionists. That David, 47, had the backing of the majority of Labour Party MPs counted for nothing.
To be fair, “Red Ed” has proved to be middle-of-the-road in his two years as Labour leader. Having decided not to serve under Ed, David has just announced he is quitting politics altogether, resigning as Labour MP and moving to New York to become the £3,00,000 a year president and chief executive of an NGO, the International Rescue Committee.
One consequence of Ed’s decision to challenge his brother is that David’s American wife, Louise Shackleton, a violinist, is no longer friends with her sister-in-law, Justine Thornton, a lawyer.
Just before the leadership election, I met David Miliband who confirmed he was in regular mobile phone contact with Rahul Gandhi — one would-be PM in touch with another would-be PM, as it were.
It does not look as though that is going to happen “any time soon”, as BBC correspondents sign off when they can’t think of anything better to say.
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| Acid threat: Debanjana and her mother on BBC |
Flesh trade
India’s already tarnished reputation on attitudes to women is sinking by the day. BBC World Service radio last week again broadcast Natalia Antelava’s deeply disturbing report on sex trafficking in India.
It would be interesting to know if Calcutta police have picked up the boastful local trafficker who admits to selling 200 girls a year @ $1,000 (Rs 54,000) on each transaction. The man has been clearly identified on BBC television as has a victim, Debanjana, 18. Her mother alleges the neighbourhood men who kidnapped her are threatening an acid attack on her unless the case against them is withdrawn.
Indian shame
On BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs last week, the guest was a Derby-born Sikh woman, Jasvinder Sanghera, who campaigns against forced marriage after her own horrific experiences and that of her younger sister, Robina (who fatally set herself on fire). But she extrapolated from the particular to the general and rubbished the entire Asian community.
Jasvinder made her late mother to be a sort of she-devil and quoted her as once telling her: “The only reason why I send you to school is because it is the law.”
This is not a good time to be an Indian.
Tittle tattle
Man of the moment is Mohsin Hamid. The book to read judging by all the favourable publicity is his How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia. Meanwhile, the fast-paced film adaptation of the Pakistani author’s previous novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, directed by Mira Nair, is just getting a general release in the UK.