A SECOND New Zealand broadcaster apologised for racially charged comments today after calling the governor general “a fat Indian” in a verbal attack condemned by Prime Minister John Key.
Key, already trying to douse India’s anger after a television presenter ridiculed Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit’s name, said the radio talk show host’s remarks were unacceptable.
“I find Michael Laws’ comments offensive because they’re deeply personal and they’re aimed at the governor general in a way that I don’t think is appropriate for that office,” the prime minister told reporters.
Laws said on his show last week that Governor General Anand Satyanand’s weight seemed incongruous on an Indian, likening the official to an obese Monty Python character, Mr Creosote, who explodes after eating too much food.
“I mean, we don’t all expect Indians to be begging on the streets of New Delhi, but it’s like Anand discovered the buffet table at 20 and he’s never really left it,” Laws said.
He initially refused to apologise, telling the New Zealand Herald: “I just said he’s a fat Indian man, which is true. He’s a fat Indian.”
But Laws backed down in the wake of yesterday’s resignation of another broadcaster, TVNZ host Paul Henry, whose Dikshit comments provoked a furious official protest from New Delhi.
“I apologise to the governor general for comments which were, upon reflection, uncharitable and inappropriate,” Laws said in a statement.
Henry had also targeted Satyanand’s ethnicity, asking whether the official, who was born in Auckland to Indo-Fijian parents, was a proper New Zealander.
Key said Satyanand was doing a good job as the Queen’s representative in New Zealand and that should be the only standard on which he was judged.
“I don’t rate people on their physical weight, their height or their religious beliefs and I don’t think it’s appropriate to take pot shots at the governor general on that basis,” he said.
Key did not believe Henry’s comments would damage relations between Wellington and New Delhi, saying it was clear “these were the words of a New Zealand broadcaster, not someone from the New Zealand government”.
“Around the world there are a lot of broadcasters, and I might add, a lot of comedians, who say all sorts of things about other country’s nationals,” he added.
“I think governments, in my experience, have the maturity to recognise that.”
Asked if India had over-reacted to the insult, he replied: “I wouldn’t say that, we just dealt with the situation as was necessary.”
In a statement yesterday, Henry apologised for his comments.
“I am astonished and dismayed that my comments have created a diplomatic incident,” he said.
“My style is conversational and of course unscripted. I walk the finest of lines and accept that I have inadvertently crossed it from time to time.”
TVNZ chief executive Rick Ellis has also apologised to India.
