The Hindu Business Line : Blunkett's exit

THE closing months of 2004 saw the British Home Secretary (same as Home Minister), Mr David Blunkett, and his private office, embroiled in a heated and unsavoury controversy in Parliament and the media over the allegation that he hastened the issue of a visa to the nanny of his mistress, whose own credentials as a member of the top echelons of The Spectator, added to the titillation.

Officials in his private office were said to have chased the application on his behalf with the Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND), with the result a matter that might have taken about six months for processing, was disposed of in 52 days with a favourable decision.

As soon as the story broke, Mr Blunkett resigned from the Cabinet and the Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, his long-time, close friend, had no hesitation in asking the Master of Queen's College, Oxford, Sir Alan Budd, to undertake a formal inquiry into the accusation.

After examining 22 witnesses, including Mr Blunkett and his lover, all that Sir Alan could come across was an exchange of six fax and e-mail messages between an official in Mr Blunkett's private office and the IND over the pending visa application. He found no evidence that this was at the instance of the Minister.

Meanwhile, poor Mr Blunkett was the subject of another revelation and reprimand by the Parliamentary Standards Commissoner that he let his lover use the free rail pass to which only he and his spouse were entitled.

The reason why, l'affaire Blunkett, which had been the lead story for days in both the print and electronic media in Britain, analysed from every conceivable angle in commentaries and editorials, did not create even a ripple in India's mainstream media and corridors of power is quite simple. Inured as the people here are to far more egregious excesses on the part of politicians, such episodes do not excite readers' or viewers' interest.

No wonder, then, barring sporadic and sketchy mention, it had not received any detailed coverage.

The Indian political class, one can be sure, did not even deign to look at it, since judged by the same harsh standard as Mr Blunkett applied to himself while resigning even before the inquiry was ordered, almost all Ministers at the Centre and in the States would have had to resign en masse!

B. S. Raghavan

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