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Former British PM says he supported Hinduja's passport bid

A former British prime minister has openly said that he supported the passport application of businessman Gopichand Hinduja, president of Hinduja group of industries.

Former Conservative Prime Minister Sir Edward Heath spoke for the first time about his relationship with Hindujas, confirming that he did support Gopichand's bid to secure the British passport, the Times newspaper reported Saturday.

"He (Hinduja) had been living in England for many years and was a very prominent businessman. There seemed every reason why, if he wanted to become British, he should be considered," Heath, who sponsored the application, told the daily.

"Quite honestly, all I did was to be one of the people who signed the application," he said.

Heath also sat on a two-million-pound trust for which the Hindujas provided scholarships for Cambridge University students.

The report quoted Hinduja family as saying that Tory treasurer Lord Feldman helped their bid for British nationality.

Feldman, a longstanding family friend of Hindujas, signed the successful 1997 passport application by Gopichand which was handled by Conservative Immigration Minister Timothy Kirkhope.

Heath said he first met the Hinduja brothers when they offered to create a British `Nobel Prize'.

The requests of both Gopichand and his elder brother Srichand, chairman of the group, for British passports was rejected by the Home Office in 1991 on the ground that the brothers were away from Britain for more than 450 days in the preceeding five-year period.

On March 5, 1997, Gopichand submitted a new application signed by Feldman and Heath.

Kirkhope recalled seeing the papers but believed the case was handed to officials. Soon after, then Prime Minister John Major called the general election on March 17, 1997.

According to the report, Kirkhope declined to say whether he had any contact with Feldman over Gopichand's passport application. Feldman was unavailable for comment. The application was finally approved in November 1997 after the Labour Party assumed power.

Kirkhope later worked as advisor to the Hindujas but said he had nothing to do with Srichand Hinduja's successful bid for a passport in 1998.

Srichand's sponsors were British Asians, the report said.

Feldman is an influential figure in the Tory hierarchy. He was leader of the party's grassroots as chairman of the national union from 1991 to 1996.

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