TRANSCRIPT
GP Hinduja
and John Humphrys
John Humphrys:
It seems that the Hammond enquiry it seems has essentially cleared Peter Mandelson of acting dishonestly. Sir Peter Hammond found in his words "no reason to doubt Mr Mandelson's honesty throughout this period". Well, one family that's been taking a particular interest indeed a very personal interest in the matter is the Hinduja brothers. It was their interest in acquiring British passports that lead to the downfall of Peter Mandelson from his job as Northern Ireland Secretary. A few minutes ago we managed to get through to one of the Hinduja brothers, GP Hinduja, and I asked him for his reaction to the news that Mr Mandelson had effectively been cleared.
GP Hinduja:
From the very first day, Mr SP Hinduja and myself have been saying that we that there was no connection between the donation to the Dome and to the citizenship and we were shocked when this connection was made. What was the reason to whoever instigated or started this, this is the curiosity for us.
John Humphrys:
And what is your view on that, who do you believe was responsible for that?
GP Hinduja:
There has to be somebody, there has to be something behind it and being at a distance it's particularly difficult for me because when we left London we didn't see such clues. All this attack has started after we have left London. We strongly feel there is some concert going on between the Indian media and the British media.
John Humphrys:
So you're saying are you that it is because you yourselves had some enemies in the British, in the Indian media in this country that these allegations were first raised, is that what you are saying?
GP Hinduja:
It could be one of the possibility. I'm not sure. But one thing is amazing, how can a donation to the Dome which was done was from our heart, which was the dream of my brother SP Hinduja, it was his dream to see how the peace can come in the world, proper understanding could be developed and when the concordia project which was on the longest did not get the money from the NMEC, he thought this was the best opportunity for him to bring it in the Faith Zone, that is why he proposed to even underwrite the full amount of £4m.
John Humphrys:
The problem that many people as you well know in this country is that you did get your passports very very quickly indeed and they look for a connection there.
GP Hinduja:
I think again I don't agree with you. I have many friends of mine who have got citizenship in even in a period of four to five months.
John Humphrys:
How close …
GP Hinduja:
So don't forget our application was made in 1990 and 91 the original application.
John Humphrys:
How close would you describe your relationship with people like Mr Mandelson and indeed Mr Vaz, Keith Vaz, as being?
GP Hinduja:
We have just a cordial and good relationship, what any good citizen would have with any politician and I have equally such good relation with many other in the country.
John Humphrys:
As far as Mr Vaz is concerned, was your relationship a friendly one, a political one or a business one, or perhaps all three?
GP Hinduja:
We had a common interest to see how the Asian community or the ethnic community could get equality to reflect what Britain keeps on talking.
John Humphrys:
And how close was that relationship?
GP Hinduja:
It was only on this objective, nothing more than that.
John Humphrys:
But you did have some business relationships with him as well did you not?
GP Hinduja:
That's totally nonsense. We had no business relationship with Keith Vaz.
John Humphrys:
What about the Prime Minister's handling of this whole affair and the dismissal of Peter Mandelson, what do you make of all that? The resignation of Peter Mandelson, what do you make of all that?
GP Hinduja:
It is very difficult for me to comment but I do feel sorry that because of our citizenship where Peter Mandelson had no role to play, if he was asked to resign, basically that hurts us, but I don't know much about what transpired between the two of them.
John Humphrys:
What do you suspect happened?
GP Hinduja:
It's very difficult for me, but we hope that now that the report is clearing Mr Mandelson, we hope that they will now in the interest of fair reporting, the media, which has tried to damage our family for no rhyme or reason, will be able to do a proper justification because we know normally likes to take the evil first and when the good news comes, nobody wants to report it.
They don't realise the harm that's done to the reputation of any businessman how difficult for anyone to take it.
John Humphrys:
Do you believe that Mr Mandelson should be returned to the Government and are you prepared to make any representations to any politicians in this country to say so?
GP Hinduja:
(laughs). What me, I'm no one to make a representation, but if he has been asked to resign for this reason, of our citizenship, I can tell you he had never done any favour to us and he should be back in the Government.
John Humphrys:
You yourselves of course have been and still are in a considerable amount of trouble in India. Do you feel any sense of responsibility because of your association with politicians in this country for what has happened here?
GP Hinduja:
Firstly, we don't consider ourselves to be in trouble here because we have come voluntarily of our own will to get a clean sheet because we have nothing to hide the stigma was going on for 14 years, again it is all political and it's the media because legally there is nothing which can stick to us and to answer your question we don't consider ourselves to be in trouble. It has given us more opportunity to concentrate on the economy in the country.
John Humphrys:
Mr Hinduja, thank you very much indeed.
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Please Note:
This transcript was typed from an on-air broadcast and not copied from an original script. Because of the possibility of mis-hearing and the difficulty, in some cases, of identifying individual speakers, the 91Èȱ¬ cannot vouch for its accuracy.
