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Journalism of Courage
LONDON, FEB 6: British Asian and black community leaders on Tuesday sprang to the defence of embattled Europe Minister Keith Vaz, claiming he was the victim of a "ferocious witch-hunt".
They signed a strongly worded letter in the Mirror and Guardian newspapers, saying that Vaz had been "subjected to an obsessive campaign of denigration".
It was signed by three Labour peers from the House of Lords as well as leading lawyers and ethnic minority activists.
Vaz is the highest-ranking Asian member of Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair’s cabinet.
Foreign Secretary Robin Cook had during the weekend demanded that the media stop "hounding" Vaz for his alleged role in a passport scandal that has already claimed a key ally of Blair’s.
Cook said there was no evidence that Vaz had broken ministerial rules in the swirl of allegations about an Indian billionaire who made donations to Britain’s Millennium Dome exhibition hall and was later granted a British passport.
The affair rocked Blair’s government last month when the minister who formerly had responsibility for the Dome, Peter Mandelson, resigned after allegations he helped Srichand Hinduja get a British passport three times faster than normal.
The allegations of influence-peddling by the Hinduja family, which made a million-pound donation to the Dome when Mandelson was in charge of the project, came as Blair prepares for an early election he is expected to call in May.
Now the Indian-born Vaz, a friend of the Hindujas, faces questions about his role after reports that he wrote to Blair and Mandelson about giving Srichand Hinduja a passport.
The Hinduja brothers moved many of their business dealings from India to London 20 years ago, but they are now in New Delhi for questioning by Indian investigators over the 1986 Bofors arms scandal involving alleged kickbacks.
An Indian court has refused to let them leave the country while the probe is pending.
