Barry Gardiner MP hosted a Gala Dinner at Labour Party conference in Liverpool in the presence of the Indian High Commission. The Dinner took place in the stunning St. Georges Hall, a real tribute to Liverpool.

The dinner saw the participation of Mr Rajesh Prasad, Acting Indian High Commissioner, Baroness Royall, Leader of the Opposition in the House of Lords, Emma Reynolds, Shadow Foreign Office Minister, the Rt. Hon. David Blunkett and Keith Vaz MP, Chair of the Home Affairs Select committee, as well as many other MPs and dignitaries.

Speakers praised the continuing vibrancy of Indian democracy in the wake of the terrible atrocities in New Delhi and Mumbai this year, welcomed increased trade between the UK and India, particularly the new Landrover plant which will be built in Wolverhampton and shared their personal stories of their connections with India.

Our deepest thanks to everyone who contributed to a wonderful evening.

Tomorrow I will be speaking alongside other members of Labour Friends of India in a debate in Parliament on “human rights in the Indian sub-continent”. We want to take the opportunity of this debate to remind the world of how India, the world’s most populous democracy, continues to be a beacon of tolerance, peace and democracy in the face of some of the most serious security threats faced by any country in the world.

The Indian sub-continent is one of the most dangerous and unstable regions in the world. The 2011 Failed State Index from the respected ‘Foreign Policy’ magazine lists six of India’s neighbours as being amongst ’the most failed states in the world’.

Pakistan, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bhutan all featured on the list of 60 countries.

Friends of India around the world breathed a sigh of relief last Friday when the Indian government released the anti-corruption campaigner, Anna Hazare from jail. What a tragic irony it would have been, had this nation – whose very birth came out of the hunger strikes of Mahatma Gandhi – prevented Hazare from resuming his peaceful protest against corruption.

It is not for any other country to interfere in India’s domestic affairs. India’s friends though will know that the direction she chooses over the ‘Lokpal’ bill is one that will in many ways determine her future.

Certainly the enormous swell of public support for Hazare’s cause and the uniting of all the opposition parties in support of a strengthened bill, has given the UPA Central Government a unique political opportunity to pass a bill which will break the back of corruption. This is an opportunity that has never previously existed and one that may not come again for another generation.

Today marks the sixty fourth anniversary of India’s independence, an opportunity to celebrate not only India’s transformation into an emerging super power but also to recognise the continuing transition in UK-India relations and look forward to even closer ties in the years to come.

Details of new Chinese plans to divert water from the Brahmaputra River emerged last month, causing expressions of concern to be made by Indian politicians from all parties.

The new plans involve the diversion of water from the Brahmaputra to the upper reaches of the north-western Chinese province of Xinjiang which has recently experienced serious droughts.

The plans follow the announcement in 2010 that China is building a hydroelectric project near the ‘great bend’ in the Yarlung Tsangpo, as the Brahmaputra is called in Tibet. The hydroelectric dam is the biggest in the world and will have an electrical capacity almost half that of the UK National Grid.

Discussions continue today between United Progressive Alliance government ministers and civil society representatives about the creation of a new anti-graft or ‘Lokpal’ bill in New Delhi. The two sides look set to find a compromise this week on a bill which has stirred tension between the government and anti-corruption campaigners throughout 2011.

Last week a 20,000 strong protest in support of a hunger strike by yoga guru Baba Ramdev ended after police clashed with protestors, firing tear gas canisters into the crowd. Ramdev and his followers had been protesting against corruption and for the return of black money banked abroad.

Ramdev himself was hospitalised following an eight day hunger strike. His protest has garnered support and sympathy across India. The government agreed to create a new Lokpal Bill following a week-long hunger strike in April by another anti-corruption campaigner, the Ghandian Anna Hazare.