Prime Minister John Key took a curious approach to acknowledging the fact that there are two Indians as Members of Parliament in New Zealand, while speaking at the Waitakere Diwali Festival at Trusts Stadium in West Auckland on September 25.
Ordinarily, this would not be a matter on which I would express any views publicly.
However, since he has pointedly acknowledged one Indian as the “First to enter Parliament’ when the fact is that both entered at the same time, his approach requires some response.
Mr Key decided to especially acknowledge Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi as New Zealand’s first Indian MP.
My Parliamentary colleague Mr Bakshi is certainly the first Indian National MP.
We both entered Parliament in 2008 but we belong to different political parties.
I now wonder how Mr Key sees me as an Indian and as an MP.
I would like to know if he is making a particular point and if so what is it?
Does Mr Key believe that Indians are only those born in India and does he justify his comments in this way?
I do not care much how Mr Key describes me because I am confident of my identity and my ‘Indianness.’ I am also proud of Fiji as my country of birth.
Or is My Key simply being political and is thus blind to the fact that the New Zealand Parliament has two Indian MPs, who are both determined to make their contributions to their adopted country?
If Mr Key or anyone else only describes Indians as those born in India, then how does he assimilate the fact that one in every three Indians are from Fiji? Indeed, how does he see others who are ethnically Indians but were born elsewhere?
Perhaps the New Zealand Prime Minister ought to realise the difference between one’s nationality and ethnic identity.
Our passports determine our nationality and this would change if we become citizens of a particular country.
Our ethnic identity is what we inherit at birth.
Our ethnicity informs our cultural beliefs, our rituals, our practices and our view of the world. It gives us confidence, informs how we communicate and provides access to thousands of years of tradition and history. This is where my sense of being Indian comes from and that is what makes us Indians unique.
As mentioned, I do not care much for the political point Mr Key might have been making during his speech. But in making that point in a public forum, he identified his attitudes to the rest of us.
If he intends to do so, that is fine.
However, in taking that rather ill-conceived position he opened up a huge debate that he must now address.
Mr Key, can you tell us who is an Indian?
Are those born in India alone can be called Indians?
If that is not so, then Mr Key must explain his comments about the ethnicity of two Indian members of Parliament.
He must be more careful, if he was speaking of only his Party.
Dr Rajen Prasad is Member of Parliament on Labour List. Readers may respond to editor@indiannewslink.co.nz
