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Sikh MP’s bid for Speaker’s post ends
WSN Network

LONDON: Abid for the Speaker’s post in the British House of Commons by a Sikh MP Parmjit Dhanda, 37, ended with John Bercow’s election to the 632-year-old post. Dhanda, a Labour MP for Gloucester, had announced plans to move some parliamentary business outside Westminster.

But Dhanda’s bid did underline the increasingly significant role being played by the Sikhs in the political domain in many countries. Born to a Sikh immigrant family Dhanda was a minister at the Communities Department until October last year. He rose from a working class background— his mother was a cleaner at a hospital, and his father a lorry driver. Parmjit Dhanda is clean shaven, and many sections of the community would not really see him as a role model for young Sikhs at a time when the community is battling idenitity issues.

Dhanda’s focus was on loosening the grip of party whips, with MPs electing heads of select committees, as well as making Parliament more family-friendly by introducing crèche facilities. Significantly, and proudly for the Sikh community, Dhanda was untainted by the MPs’ expenses claims scandal. The current speaker, Michael Martin, stepped down Sunday after suffering the humiliation of being the first to be forced out since 1695. The new Speaker was elected by a secret ballot of all 646 MPs in which John Bercow, a Conservative who provokes fury among many on his own side for his perceived Labour sympathies, got the job.

24 June  2009
 

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