King Charles III’s coronation: Why India is fond of him?

As King Charles III’s coronation will take place on 6 May at Westminster Abbey in London, it evokes crowd of memories when he has visited India as a Prince for several times. During the coronation ceremony, the King will be crowned alongside Camilla, the Queen Consort. Vice President, Jagdeep Dhankhar, will represent the Indian government at the coronation of King Charles III. Thus, he will join a gathering of about 2,000 dignitaries, including heads of state and government, at the coronation ceremony.

While meeting the newly crowned King Charles, Jagdeep Dhankhar would surely invite him to visit India. Of course, he would accept the invite and would visit India in future. It is a very exciting time for India as well as an Indian origin Rishi Sunak, is the Prime Minister of Britain. It goes without saying that King Charles and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak would ensure that relations between India and Britain move to next level.

And in national capital, Delhi, all those who are working for Delhi Brotherhood Society (DBS) are eagerly awaiting to receive King Charles once again. He too would like to see the activities of the St John Vocational Centre of the DBS Delhi in the capital and other parts of the country. When he was visiting Delhi couple of years ago, he had come to see the activities of St John Vocational Centre in East Delhi. Here, vocational courses in air conditioning, motor mechanic, beautician, carpenter, tailoring, etc. are run for youngsters belonging to the weaker sections of the society. At that time, he had also interacted with many youths taking training at the centre and expressed satisfaction that the youth trained here are making a place for themselves in life.

Monodeep Daniel, a member of the Delhi Brotherhood Society, said that Prince Charles had promised that he would look into the remaining projects of the Brotherhood Society in future visits. It must be remembered that DBS was the founder of St Stephen’s College and hospital. One of the founders of the Delhi Brotherhood Society was Deen Bandhu CF Andrews, who was a freedom fighter despite the fact the he was from Britain. He was also a friend of Gandhiji. He also taught at St Stephen’s College, Delhi.

And when Prince Charles, who is now a king, came to Mumbai in 1981, he was kissed by Padmini Kolhapure. The video of that incident is currently getting viral on social media. During his visit, he went to a film studio where Padmini Kolhapure was shooting for her film ‘Ahista Ahista’. The actress greeted him with a peck on his cheek. Following this, she was recognised in Britain as 'the woman who kissed Prince Charles'. In the video, Padmini can be seen greeting King Charles with a garland and a peck on his cheek. He also looked surprised by her gesture following which the actress is seen leaving the frame laughing. Meanwhile, Britain and India currently collaborate across a wide range of different areas, but the countries have stated that they want to establish a comprehensive strategic partnership. And the fair and just society of Britain is giving enough opportunities to Indians settled there to excel. The rich list published by a popular UK daily recently features several tycoons of Indian origin who are considered the wealthiest residents in Britain. The Hinduja family led by Srichand and Gopichand Hinduja has topped the Rich list. The Hindujas have topped the list with an estimated wealth of 28.472 billion pounds.

But Hindujas are not the only Indian-origin Richie Richs in the list of 250 wealthiest British residents. Steel baron Lakshmi Niwas Mittal is placed in the sixth spot with a wealth estimated to be around 17 billion pounds. He was placed at the fifth spot in the list last year. Anil Agarwal, the founder and chairperson of Vedanta Group is placed at the 16th spot with a wealth of 9.2 billion pounds. Last year, he was ranked 15th in the list. He moved one rank up due to an increase in wealth by 200 million pounds. Among women billionaires, Biocon founder and executive chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw and her family have made it to the list with an estimated wealth of 2.5 billion pounds. She was ranked 56 in the list published last year.

And if we talk about Indian presence in their Parliament, the House of Commons has 15 Indian-origin candidates. This is remarkable feat. All said and done, British society is very inclusive and progressive. There cannot be any debate on this subject.

Having said that, Britain also supports India's candidacy for a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). Recently, the British High Commissioner in New Delhi said, "We certainly support India becoming the member of the UNSC as this is why the UNSC reforms are the institutional that reflects to the realities of today."

However, India-Britain ties took a beating in the recent past due to growing anti-Indian activities of Khalistanis there. India expects that the British government would take action against the pro-Khalistani elements inciting violence and intimidation.

A small, extremely vocal and aggressive minority of British Sikhs who can be described as pro-Khalistan extremists is promoting anti-Indian activities there. The ‘subversive, sectarian and discriminatory activities’ of such elements don’t reflect the true nature of the majority of British Sikhs, and the ‘extremist fringe ideology within the pro-Khalistan movement’ has led to a division within British Sikh communities.

One hopes that two countries would continue to work together in different fields and King Charles would spare no effort to cement the ties. After all, he is so fond of India and India loves him.

(The author is Delhi-based senior journalist and writer. He is author of Gandhi's Delhi which has brought to the forth many hidden facts about Mahatma Gandhi)