On Gujarat Day – Let No One Deny These Truths

My speech in Parliament on May 1st.

1. It was two Gujaratis who gave the world the largest ever democracy – in the most improbable place in the world. Communist China over one shoulder – a dictatorship, Pakistan a nuclear armed on-off military theocracy over the other shoulder and Russia straight North – that India is a Democracy in that neighbourhood, is a bloody miracle. Let no one deny it was two Gujaratis, Gandhi and Sardar Patel, who led that miracle.
2. Just as Britain is a Christian country, it is because India is a Hindu country that she is a democracy. Because she is a Hindu country. Let no one deny this truth.
3. Any list of the greatest humans to have walked the earth since the birth of Christ would have on it the names of Gandhi and Sardar Patel – because without them the world would not have witnessed the end of the age of Empires – for the first time since the Romans – the world is free of Imperialism. For the first time in two thousand years, no empires because two Gujaratis led a nation to freedom. Let no one deny this truth.
4. We celebrate our Gujarati bloodline, but we have each day through our works to prove worthy of our bloodline. We are for freedom of speech everywhere, we are for freedom of thought, everywhere, we are for freedom of worship everywhere. Let no one deny this truth– this is what Gujaratis believe in.
5. You have got to carry that forward, onward, always remember it, let it drive you, direct you in all things. You’ve just got to.
6. But cross us, take advantage of our good will, good nature, and you will know the spirit of Gandhi, of Sardar Patel, still lives. Let no one deny that truth.
7. Gandhiji and Sardar Patel were also British Indian Gujaratis. They were British educated Barristers. We must recognise they were British Indians, like us all in this room, who changed the world, save the world from madness. Let no one deny British Indians did this.
8. And let no one deny, it was these British Gujaratis who when the world descended into madness in the Second World agreed to send her sons into harm’s way to save the world, to fight for British Independence in that war.
9. So let no one deny the truth, without these Gujaratis the world would not be democratic, Britain would not be a free country today.
10. We gather here today to celebrate Gujarat day, it should be a global day. It just has to be. We gather to remember our contribution to world history. We renew our faith in our Gujarati-ness, gather to remember to carry forward that legacy.

11. This is why the proudest boast of any man or woman will always be, my son, my daughter is a Gujarati. Let no one deny that truth.

Alpesh Patel, www.politicalanimal.me