I thought not.
But it seems our Royal Highness the Prince of Wales may have had the good fortune of meeting many souls kept aside from British society on account of their blood-thirsty hunting habits. In the famously leaked letter he wrote to the Prime Minister, the Prince claims that fox-hunters are being persecuted just like ethnic minorities. Many people I spoke to thought that this was rather a strong comparison fraught with the dangers of civic ignorance.
I mean look at it this way – if anybody was being persecuted it would have to be the poor little fox running away for dear life from hoards of baying hounds and scores of screaming Englishmen. But oh dear - some people would still find it easy to believe the fox thoroughly enjoys being chased, shot at, and skinned.
Ratilal Chohan, Chairman of the Hindu Council UK believes that this comparison is not fair. “As Hindus we believe that all living beings including animals should be treated equally. We have always respected the Prince’s support to multi-cultural Britain, but I fail to understand how fox-hunters and ethnic minorities fall in the same bracket. After all, fox- hunting is only a game, but ethnicity is the very core of one’s identity.”
“We greatly admire the Prince for his views and support to minority faiths,” said Dr Giridhari Bhan, the President of VHP. “The principle of speaking up for people who are persecuted is admirable, but the practice of hunting foxes which involves cruelty to animals is not appreciated by Hindus who adhere to the principle of non-violence.”
“It is unfortunate that fox hunting has become a political issue now,” said O P Sharma, President of the National Council of Hindu Temples. “The Prince of Wales has his own view, while Labour and Conservative parties have their opposing views. But the Hindu viewpoint is very clear - we do not want to persecute any living being, and this includes both foxes and humans.”
As long as the Government does not think the matter serious enough to set up an Equality Commission for Fox Hunters, we are quite safe. Storms in teacups don’t usually come with so much chai masala!
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Speaking of Equality Commissions, has anyone heard from Gurbax Singh the former Chairperson of the Commission for Racial Equality who stepped down over a drunken brawl?
I had met him at a reception three days before the story broke out, and thought at that time that he would make a nice bhajiya for this column. Fate of course had other thoughts in her mind, and I was robbed of a good interview by Singh’s indiscretions at the races – not forgetting the contributions made by the policeman who nicked him and the good magistrate who sentenced him.
I did meet his successor, the Acting Chair of the CRE, Beverley Bernard at a conference to discuss the setting up a Single Equality Body to replace the separate commissions existing now for race, age, disability and sexual orientation.
“Does the Government have a clear vision of how the different communities can live together?” asked Bernard while speaking about the CRE’s views on a Single Equality Body. “We need a much longer debate on this issue – not just a stitch-up and a fix-up. We strongly feel that adequate consultation and approach to ethnic communities needs to be taken into account.”
Is anyone in Whitehall listening?