Cameron

London, March 26: Six decades after the Conservatives did all in their power to resist the curtain coming down on the Raj, the party’s youthful new leader, David Cameron, is preparing to celebrate the granting of independence to India and Pakistan.

Cameron will “host a dinner on June 11, 2007, celebrating the 60th anniversary of the independence of Pakistan and India from British rule”, the Conservative Central Office announced last week.

The Conservative peer Lord Sheikh, chairman of the party’s Ethnic Diversity Council, said: “The dinner will celebrate the contribution made to Britain by people from the subcontinent. Other senior Conservative politicians will be among the guests.”

He added: “We want to celebrate the significance of the independence for these countries from the British empire allowing them to determine their future. The historic ties between the subcontinent and Britain have provided great opportunities on both sides.”

Sheikh commented: “Sixty years of independence is something to celebrate and I am glad to be involved with the Conservative Party’s positive approach to this anniversary. It will be a great opportunity for people from these Asian communities to come together to celebrate a shared history and to look to their future within Britain today.”

He said: “The people of Pakistani and Indian origin are an integral part of the British population and their contribution to British society and its economy is to the benefit of us all. This dinner is an opportunity for us to celebrate an important date in history that has meant so much to all of us living in Britain today.”

To be fair to the Tories, they have long moved away from the hardline party of Sir Winston Churchill which stood out against allowing the natives to do so foolish a thing as to govern themselves. Gone, too, are the bad old days of Enoch Powell.

The problem for the Tories is that they have a solitary Asian MP in Shailesh Vara, from North-West Cambridgeshire, though he now holds a position of great responsibility as shadow deputy leader in the House of Commons.

Cameron, 40, who often cycles to work and frequently wears a green tie to indicate his concern for the environment, returned impressed from a trip to India last year.

He said on his return: “There were so many highlights but overall the thing that really stuck in my mind was the way in which India has made a success of its pluralist secular democracy.