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Blair Defends Hinduja Passport

British Prime Minister Tony Blair's office has insisted that there was nothing wrong with the issuance of passports to the Hindujas or their one million pound sponsorship of the Millennium Dome.

"The issue of (passport to) the Hindujas and sponsorship of the Dome is something which we have always been upfront about. We have always said that there was nothing wrong whatsoever with that. The charge was that in some way passports were traded for sponsorship, which is what the Hammond inquiry looked at, and concluded that there was no impropriety," an official spokesman of Blair said.

His comments came in the wake of media reports claiming that it was Jonathan Powell, chief of staff at Prime Minister's Office, who had first told Peter Mandelson to contact the Hinduja brothers, S P Hinduja and G P Hinduja, chairman and president respectively of the Hinduja Group, over Millennium Dome sponsorship. According to an updated version of political commentator Andrew Rawnsley's book, Servants of the People , Powell wrote an official minute to the then Cabinet Office Minister, saying he should follow up the Indian millionaires' offer to help build the Dome.

Mandelson lost his job as Northern Ireland Secretary after giving PMO a confusing account of his involvement in Srichand Hinduja's later application for British citizenship.

Mandelson was said to have called the Home office to see if the application could go ahead after Hinduja and his brother made a one million pound Dome donation. An inquiry headed by Sir Anthony Hammond, QC, concluded that it was 'likely' that the call took place, but cleared Mandelson of any impropriety.

Rawnsley's book claims that Powell's memorandum was never submitted to the inquiry. Prime minister's spokesman refused to say whether Sir Anthony either saw the memorandum or was aware of its existence. He said "Sir Anthony was able to look at all material in relation to passports, the Hindujas, what have you. There are well documented paper trails in Whitehall, and obviously, he had a secretariat who could help him with that. He was able to look at things, to make judgements." The spokesman said the government would not be "getting into" details of precisely what documentation "Sir Anthony did or did not see."

PTI

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