By Dipankar De Sarkar, IANS,
London : Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair Friday finally got to publicly thank the man credited with crafting his Labour party’s win and putting him into power – courtesy of an Indian medal.
Old pals Blair and Lord Peter Mandelson were brought together on a London stage by the Labour Friends of India, a lobby group, for Mandelson to present his former boss with the Frenner Brockway medal.
Mandelson, who crafted Labour’s 1997 win and backed Blair as prime minister over Gordon Brown for two successive terms, was made cabinet minister by Blair.
But he was forced to quit in 2001 after telephoning a junior home minister to ask after a British citizenship application from Indian-origin industrialist Srichand Hinduja, who had donated a million pounds towards an ill-fated Millennium Dome project being handled by Mandelson.
In his second term as prime minister, Blair backed Mandelson for the job of European Union Trade Commissioner – a hefty international assignment whose deft handling won Mandelson wide acclaim.
Accepting the medal from Mandelson before an audience of senior Indians and Britons from the world of banking, politics and business Friday, Blair said he had a “special word of thank you for Peter”.
“It’s true that I did a lot for you� But you did even more for me, and that’s returned the favour,” he told Mandelson.
“It’s not often that I get the chance to say this publicly. For years he’s been a wonderful friend to me. He’s a brilliant man, a remarkable man and a very great public servant,” Blair added.
Mandelson, who has now been brought back in by Blair’s troubled successor Brown in a tribute to his troubleshooting skills, praised Blair for spotting the rise of India early on.
“He said (the job of) trade’s absolutely right for you because you can go out there into the world and you’re going to discover countries like India which are transforming the economic landscape of the world,” said Mandelson.
Blair was given the medal for his contributions to Britain-India relations in front of an audience that included Deutsche Bank head of global market Anshu Jain, a large number of Labour politicians, NRI businessmen and Indian High Commissioner Shiv Shankar Mukherjee.