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Lawsuits planned against Dosanjh

J M Shenoy

The New Democratic Party is getting ready to elect its leader during a special convention starting on February 18 when, it is expected, Attorney-General Ujjal Dosanjh will be made the first Indian Canadian premier. But disgruntled party workers are planning lawsuits against bulk enrollments. The convention will be held in Vancouver. British Columbia has had an acting premier after Glen Clark's resignation following a financial scandal.

Dosanjh, 51, who did not learn to speak English until he was a teenager, appears virtually assured of becoming Canada's first premier of Punjabi descent, said the Globe and Mail. His family migrated first to England, where he eventually became an editor of a Punjabi newspaper, and then to British Columbia, where he studied at night school to become a lawyer.

Though an audit by the party has said there were no serious irregularities, a number of articles in mainstream publications such as The Vancouver Provincehave claimed that among over 10,000 new members, mostly Dosanjh's backers, signed up. Some of them did not even know they belonged to the NDP. A handful of the new members were not living people.

Most of the new members are Indian Canadians who were given bulk or cut rates -- a nominal $ 5 or so.

Among the critics of the membership spree is Dosanjh's fellow Indian Canadian, Cabinet minister Moe Sihota, who is close to fundamentalist Sikhs. Dosanjh, a critic of the Khalistan movement, nearly lost his life to a machete-wielding radical a few years ago.

Any leader elected under "a cloud" or a "shroud" will not benefit in the long run, said Education Minister Gordon Wilson, a candidate for premiership who is far behind Dosanjh in the race.

Dosanjh's supporters say he has done very well in non-Indian groups. He has wide appeal in the party and among the voters because of his commitment to reduce crime, and his demand for stronger punishment for to those who sexually molest children.

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