HOUSE SPEAKER SAYS ‘THANK YOU’ TO INDIANS IN BRITAIN

LONDON: Known for pulling up errant ministers and MPs in his stentorian voice, House of Common speaker John Bercow believes that Britain rarely says “thank you”, but it should do so more often to recognise the contribution of the Indian community here.

Speaking at an event at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan here to mark a decade of ‘Asian Lite’, a leading publication edited by Kerala-origin journalist Azeez Anasudhin, Bercow said many members of the community had contributed much, without expecting anything in return.

Bercow, who belongs to the Conservative party but often adopts a tough posture against party MPs as the speaker, presented awards to seven Indian-origin achievers in Britain.

“We as a country and indeed as individuals say the words ‘thank you’ too rarely and we ought to say them more often. People don’t do their good work to be thanked. For the most part they do them because they find it fulfilling to give as to take. So I say thank you and well done”, he said.

In a special issue of the publication, Bercow reiterated the remarks he made while welcoming PM Narendra Modi during his visit in November 2015: “Indian democracy is a vibrant rebuke to those who say that such freedoms are unachievable in large states”.

“But, as I said in my introduction to Prime Minister Modi, to rout disbelievers completely, democracy has to demonstrate that it can respect free speech and incorporate a true diversity of creeds, faiths and orientations without diminishing or disrespecting any of them”.