The Asian Age

Sinn Fein win puts spotlight on treaty; balcony ‘half-full’ on Queen’s jubilee?

- Kishwar Desai

The cloud of Partygate hanging over the Prime Minister has finally gone, after the submission of the Metropolit­an Police report, following months of investigat­ion. No surprises there! Even if he had partied during the Covid restrictio­ns, the evidence gathered by the police has led to the PM being fined for just one contravent­ion of the rules.

Could this be a “resigning” matter as his opponents had hoped? That looks very unlikely though many are miffed that it took a 460,000pound investigat­ion to uncover the fact that there was a tendency to party at Downing Street, but the Prime Minister was not at the heart of it. Oh dear… now the doom mongers await the other report by the civil servant Sue Grey, hoping it might see the exit of the Prime Minister. All of this is wishful thinking, of course.

T hat is not to say that the Prime Minister does not have trouble hounding him but the good news (for him) is that the Labour Party may not be able to get a majority — as the results for the local elections showed a few weeks back. The results amply demonstrat­ed that if general elections were called tomorrow it would require a coalition of two or more parties to make up a majority. The situation appears much more dramatic in Northern Ireland. Sinn Fein, the nationalis­t party in both parts of Ireland, had emerged as the largest single party. This will be a test for the Treaty of Northern

Ireland as Sinn Fein would like to reunite both parts which the Unionists, hitherto in majority, don’t like.

Local elections are always lost by the Party in power nationally. So the issue for discussion these days is whether Boris Johnson caused a bigger loss than otherwise it would have been. Here we are in the realm of conjecture and raw politics will ultimately decide. And nothing is rawer than the Conservati­ves’ desire to hang on to power.

I n the meantime the bad news continues piling up — inflation is shooting up. Older people and poorer families are desperate. One woman hit the headlines by saying she spends the whole day on buses which she can ride for free in London with her Freedom pass which saves her money on heating her place of residence. Other sad stories continue to emerge — of people deciding to skip a meal as they cannot afford it. These narratives are usually only from Third World countries — and so it is shocking to find that these are prevalent in the UK, too. How will the issues be resolved? The government needs a plan, but so far nothing has been put forth.

T here was high suspense before the opening of Parliament on May 10 when a new annual session begun, as everyone wondered if the Queen would open Parliament. She had done it almost every year of her 70-year rule except twice when she was expecting her babies, and now it was Prince Charles as her successor who finally read her speech. Nonetheles­s, all plans for her jubilee celebratio­ns are being executed with great glee — all of which will make this June a very special month.

But the big event will be when she appears on the balcony of the Buckingham Palace to face thousands waiting patiently on the grounds in front. She has promised to be there. The question now being asked is who else from her large family qualifies. It seems Prince Andrew is out and so are Harry and Meghan, the Americans. All three have been relieved of any royal duties so they are family but not the “royal family”. So it will be a highly truncated royal family on the balcony.

A nd it is not everyday that someone from India wins a Grammy! It was wonderful to meet the twice Grammy-awarded Ricky Kej (by the way that is a shortened version of Kejriwal, no relation to the Delhi CM, though) at an intimate get-together organised by the ever genial and generous host, Sundeep Bhutoria, who runs literary events in many cities in India. Ricky had just come from playing at the opening of the Cannes Film Festival, and his message for climate change and the environmen­t is something we all need to propagate! Meeting him with friends Harsh and Madhu Neotia, Amish, Suhel

Seth, Sangeeta Dutta and others in London made one almost nostalgic for the old days when everyone from India thronged London in the summer.

B ut in the midst of all this we are thrilled that two exhibits from the Partition Museum, coming up in Delhi, are going to be displayed at the John Hansard Gallery in Southampto­n. These are two weatherbea­ten trunks which were brought across the border by families during the Partition of India — and they are going to be part of a special exhibit curated by the renowned artist Jitesh Kallat — to commemorat­e India at 75.

Tangled Hierarchy, as the exhibition is called, focusses on a collection of five humble, and yet remarkable, used envelopes. Mahatma Gandhi had written notes to Mountbatte­n on these envelopes as he was on a maun vrat that Monday, June 1, 1947, when Mountbatte­n came to see him to discuss the Partition of India. Jitesh Kallat has carefully curated the exhibit which contains other objects as well… And the Partition Museum is honoured to be part of this.

Kishwar Desai is a prizewinni­ng author and her latest book is The Longest Kiss: The Life and Times of Devika Rani. She is also the chair of the trust that set up the world's first Partition Museum in Amritsar.

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