Except for a few, not many in India may have heard of him, for the
simple reason that he has never visited the country as Britain's
Chancellor of the Exchequer, a key post he has held for a record
time.
Yet, do a search on his pre-budget and other speeches in recent
years and one of his most oft-mentioned words is 'India'. Brown has
been among the earliest British politicians to recognize the
opportunities and challenges presented by India's growing economy.
As Brown begins his belated passage to India on Wednesday, India and
Britain appear set for a new phase in their relationship in which
economy, trade and business will become the predominant buzzwords.
A political heavyweight in the Labour party, Brown, 56, is tipped to
take over as the next prime minister after Tony Blair steps down
later this year. And while the marketing of Brown has begun in full
swing back home, he will not really have to exert much to win over
Indian leaders, in particular, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Brown and Singh share a strong academic background in economics:
both have doctorates in the subject, Brown from the Edinburgh
University and Singh from Oxford. Singh served as India's finance
minister before becoming the prime minister, while Brown is treading
the same path.
Brown's Ph.D thesis was titled 'Labour's struggle to establish
itself as the alternative to the Conservatives (in the early part of
the 20th century)'. For a while, he lectured at the Edinburgh and
Caledonian universities, and also had a brief stint as a journalist
at Scottish TV in the early 1980s.
Brown, a Scot, was elected to parliament as a Labour MP for
Dunfermline East in 1983, and became the opposition spokesman on
Trade and Industry in 1985. He was the Shadow Chief Secretary to the
Treasury from 1987 to 1989 and then Shadow Secretary of State for
Trade and Industry, before becoming Shadow Chancellor in 1992.
After the sudden death of Labour leader John Smith in May 1994,
Brown was one of those tipped as a potential party leader. It has
long been rumoured that a deal was struck between Blair and Brown at
the Granita restaurant in Islington, in which Blair promised to give
Brown control of economic policy in return for Brown not standing
against him in the leadership election.
Brown has headed the Treasury since 1997, and in June 2004, he
became the UK's longest continuously serving Chancellor of the
Exchequer since the 1820s, overtaking David Lloyd George who served
for seven years and 43 days between 1908 and 1915.
With a professional façade as a workaholic, serious and sombre
politician - many call him dull and boring - Brown's record in
office has been hailed across party lines. Called the 'Iron
Chancellor', Brown has won widespread praise for having secured the
UK's economic stability.
However, in recent years, Brown has exerted to burnish his public
image. People close to him say that gone are the days of Brown the
bachelor, seemingly addicted to work, totally dedicated to his
career and obsessed with keeping government spending under control.
Brown married Sarah Macaulay in 2000, grieved at the death of his
daughter Jennifer in 2002, and later beamed across the media when
his two sons, John (2003) and James Fraser (2006) were born.
Early this week, a relaxed and smiling Brown took another step
towards shaking off his dour image as he set out his vision for a
"long period" as the next prime minister.
During a frank and witty interaction at the left-wing think-tank
Fabian Society, he invoked John F. Kennedy's idealism, and recounted
a Mark Twain story while answering a question on whether he
recognized that his personality was a problem.
Brown began by jokingly promising a new "fitness Video", and moved
on to relate the story of Mark Twain's arrival in a frontier town in
America where he was shocked to find drinking, gambling and
prostitution. "I soon realized this is no place for a puritan,"
Twain wrote. "And I did not long remain one".
Brown has been a regular in meetings of the Labour Friends of India,
a lobby within the Labour party comprising MPs, ministers and party
leaders. At a recent meeting of the lobby group, he said: "I value
my contacts with India and want to convey my thanks to Labour
Friends of India for the constructive and positive role it plays in
parliament.
"I am looking forward to visiting India with a view of understanding
how our two countries can work even more closely than they already
are. Our connections with India as a party go back many years and
our relations are deep and so profound".
The Conservative party this week listed India as one of the
countries Brown has never visited, while The Times exhorted him in
an editorial to treat India on an equal footing with America as
Britain's cousins.
The Times said: "Tony Blair has spent much of his time in office
seeking to make Britain a 'bridge' between Europe and America. Under
Mr Brown, Britain can also be, and should want to be, a bridge
between India and America".
As Brown begins his discovery of India as the head of a 150-strong
delegation, and travels across Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore, not a
few among India's political and economic glitterati will be
observing Britain's future prime minister closely.
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Who
exactly is Gordon Brown?