Will The Bash Work?

Despite the Bofors setback, Blair is still coming so far as anyone knows; there's no announcement that he won't. The prime minister's office does not discuss his public engagements for security reasons. After some years when the parties were stopped following a personal loss in the family, the Hindujas again assembled quite some political glitter this year. But some of it was shorn by the shadow of Bofors.

Blair sent in his acceptance to the party well before Advani went public on the Hindujas. The guest of honour is now in a bit of a spot. To opt out now would be to endorse suspicion over brand-new British brothers well before any court has found any guilt. To attend brings him to hosts named as prime suspects in a criminal case with thunderous political implications in India. And named as suspects by none other than the home minister, and in Parliament.

The party is on November 3. The aim of the "gala evening" (only Indians have gala evenings) is "to celebrate Diwali and to pledge ourselves to Britain's drive to build a tolerant multicultural society in the new millennium." The invitation comes from the four Hinduja brothers and their wives, and what has been announced as a National Host Committee to represent "the Indian and the Afro-Caribbean, Arab, Bangladeshi, British, Chinese, Iranian, Jewish, Mauritian, Nepalese, Pakistani and Sri Lankan communities." To the family, all the world's a family. An evening to be as varied as it is to be gala, one that is therefore multicultural and spiritually connected.

But suddenly, even as guests are figuring what they will wear to the Wednesday affair, the question being asked is: can the Hindujas be extradited? A premature question, surely, particularly since the current extradition case is around Nadeem and the last one was over Iqbal Mirchi. The Hindujas would have to be charged by the police, a court in India would have to pass an order demanding the presence of the brothers, the British home secretary would have to make an extradition order (an extradition treaty exists between India and Britain), several layers of British courts might then have to hear an appeal, then be convinced that prima facie evidence exists.... These are lengthy steps and not all of them likely to happen. But if they're not headed for Tihar, they don't seem headed for the House of Lords either. And where they are, their public image is likely to look a little less saintly.

Something the family will be less than happy about. Look at the new face the Hindujas have been working to show Britain, with some success. The Sunday Times produced a list of Britain's most powerful people. A sub-list of the spiritually powerful had the Pope heading the list, the Dalai Lama fifth and Srichand Hinduja 14th. Less kindly, an Indian newspaper here titled S.P. Hinduja 'Sant Srichand'. At this Diwali party, at those parties before, in the announcement of donations to Ôspiritual' ventures, the Hindujas have gone public with declarations of spiritual intent.

Again and again, the Hinduja name has surfaced in Britain in connection with matters claimed to be spiritual. Their first big go in that direction was what they called the Concordia project. This sought a grant from British lottery profits to set up a spirit museum with a dome shaped like a brain to let you know what's inside. You would have entered through a door into waterfalls to give you the womb experience. And moved through fire, earth, air and so on into other elemental experiences. They didn't get the money.

Next came an announcement of raising money for a spirit zone in the Millennium Dome. The views of Srichand Hinduja was broadcast on the bbc and reported everywhere. And a couple of weeks ago, a kind page in The Sunday Times. The brothers even picked up an honoris causa, an honorary doctor of letters award from the polytechnic-turned-university, Westminster, and then posed for photographs wearing very academic gowns. Step by socio-spiritual step, the Hindujas had been moving well away from the stink of the Bofors deal. Before it came back to haunt them.

It couldn't have come at a worse time for the Hindujas. These parties have had as little to do with partying as with Diwali. They have been the Great Hinduja Statement. That many who are somebody, if not anybody who is anybody, came to these parties said something about the Hinduja clout with the government in Delhi and in Britain. Now British citizens planted firmly in London, with one prime minister their guest, the other their friend, the Hindujas have been on a high. What they confront now is not a little embarrassment over a gala evening: it is the denial of everything they have been aspiring to do or become.

There's silence from New Zealand House in London's Haymarket where the Hindujas have office. The Foundation part of the group which engages with issues social and charitable says it is not for them to say anything. And the business part of the Hinduja group have only pointed again to a statement issued on September 10 where they said "there is not a shred of evidence on the allegations of corruption and bribery as far as we are concerned because we are not involved in the gun deal at all".

The Hindujas have managed to keep Bofors out of the British press. But that can't last once the case proceeds, though gradually, in India. Investigation in India will not be pleasant for the Hindujas in London. For a start, it's not enough to become British citizens only, particularly when that other British citizen Swraj Paul is now the Lord Swraj Paul. It would be nice to be Lord Hinduja or Sir Srichand, but the British are not known to make lords and knights of anyone facing criminal charges, even in another country. However spiritual and noble the path they may claim to tread.