Chandigarh, May 4
Malaysian ethnic Punjabi Karpal Singh and son Gobind Singh Deo have created history by becoming the first-ever father-son duo to be elected members of a Parliament in the world.
Though members of the Indian diaspora in general and Punjabis in particular have made commendable achievements in political arenas of their new abodes (countries), never before have an ethnic Punjabi father-son duo got elected to an Assembly or Parliament anywhere in the world.
The only parallel of two members of an ethnic family getting elected to the highest House of a country has been in Canada where the husband-wife team of Gurmant Grewal and Neena Grewal got into the House of Commons from British Columbia province some years ago.
For Karpal Singh, it is his seventh entry to Malaysian Parliament while it is a debut entry for his son. Indian MP (Rajya Sabha) Tarlochan Singh, in a letter to Karpal Singh, congratulated him for his win.
A lawyer by profession, Karpal Singh is also the chairman of the main Opposition party, the Democratic Action party (DAP). Known in Malaysia as “Tiger of Jelutong”, Karpal now moves in a wheelchair following a major road accident in 2005.
Though Karpal originally comes from Punjab, he and his family is known to have stood against injustice and fought many an important court cases in Malaysia.
For Karpal Singh, entry into Parliament came on an unexpected time. As he was mourning the death of his father, the DAP leadership offered him candidacy from Penang. Before he could accept the offer, he was named the candidate and since then he has never looked back except for losing his seat in 1995.
Recently, when a Malaysian minister identified Sikhs with Bengalis during the Baisakhi celebrations, he appealed to the community to ignore such remarks. At present, there are over one lakh Sikhs in Malaysia.
Gobind Singh Deo is also a prominent lawyer and has been assisting his father after he returned from Lincoln’s Inn in 1996. Gobind’s younger brother, Jagdeep Singh Deo, is now a member of the state Assembly for Datum Kermit State in Penang. Karpal Singh and his sons are known for their free legal aid and community services.
