- Thursday, April 25, 2024
By: Radhakrishna N S
By Amit Roy
FOR various personal reasons, I have known Prince Charles for a very long time – and there is one thing I can say with absolute confidence. There isn’t a hint of racism in him.
To be sure, the interview given by Prince Harry and Meghan to US chat show host Oprah Winfrey was shocking.
But whatever the deep divisions in the royal family that were exposed by what the Duke and Duchess of Sussex had to say, I don’t think it would be in the interest of Asians in general, and Indians in particular, to destabilise the heir to the throne. As Charles III, he would bat for British Asians – of that I am sure.
The other day, when expressing concern that some members of the UK’s ethnic minorities were not taking the Covid vaccine in a Zoom event organised by the British Asian Trust, he used an expression that tells us so much about the man.
Expressing support for the vaccine roll out in the UK, Charles said: “As you undertake this absolutely vital work, I can only wish you every possible success in coming to the aid of our ethnic minority communities, for whom I hold the greatest affection.”
Affection is a word seldom used in public – but Charles meant what he said.
He has been ahead of his time in one important respect, in always wanting to represent a multi-faith Britain. However, his desire to be “defender of faiths” rather than just “defender of the Faith” – that is only the Church of England – has got him into trouble with the more traditional elements in the British establishment.
There was a time when I used to travel quite a bit with Charles and Diana in the early days of their marriage. As part of the British press party, I went with them to Italy, Oman, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia (where she was gifted jewellery worth £1 million) and even to India.
I remember a visit to the Vatican when Charles and Diana had an audience with Pope John Paul II. Moved by the meeting, Charles announced he hoped to celebrate mass with the Pope as a gesture of unity with the Roman Catholic Church.
But on the morning of the day this was supposed to happen, the accompanying press officer, Vic Chapman, told us that the joint mass had been cancelled on the orders of Buckingham Palace. This did not improve HRH’s mood, said Chapman, adding in his characteristically earthy way, “It sure ****** up his lunch.”
Charles’s attitude to Islam doesn’t suggest he is a man with prejudices. In 1993, he gave a lecture entitled Islam and the West at the inauguration of the distinguished lecturer programme at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. He returned in 2010 and toured the centre before delivering another lecture, Islam and the environment, at Oxford University’s Sheldonian Theatre.
With India, a country he has visited on countless occasions, he has had a special relationship. Charles said he acquired his love of India from his great-uncle, Lord Mountbatten, the last viceroy of India. When Mountbatten was assassinated by the IRA (Irish Republican Army) in 1979, the first country in the world to lower its flag was not the UK, but India.
Just before Charles and Diana went to India in 1992, one of his senior officials invited me to Clarence House for suggestions on what he might say in his keynote address in Delhi. I said he ought to mention he had learned about India from Mountbatten, which he did. Unfortunately, he did not listen to another piece of advice – that he should accompany Diana to the Taj Mahal in Agra. He didn’t – with disastrous PR consequences.
None of the press wanted to go with him to Bangalore: instead, everyone wanted to accompany Diana to Golconda. I was press ganged into travelling on his VC10 – alone with him and his officials – to Bangalore for a meeting with businessmen discussing how to make gas from cowdung. Although the air condition failed, he stayed in a hot, stifling room the whole afternoon. But he did care about the possible benefits of making gas for poor Indians.
I reckon he knows India better than most British Indians, anyway. And I forget the number of times I have seen him at Indian functions in the UK.
Of course, none of this means there hasn’t been a breakdown in his relationship with Harry. Many will not forgive him for the collapse of his marriage to Diana. However, you get to know someone’s attitudes over a number of years.
Without in any way diminishing what Meghan and Harry said in their interview, I can definitely state that Charles cares for Britain’s ethnic minorities, especially the Indian community. The one thing he isn’t is racist.
