"Maybe that's why everyone over there is so skinny". I'm paraphrasing either a low grade model or an ex-pop star on the Big Brother show. One of them (it doesn't matter which) said this because they felt they had been poisoned by Shilpa who had under cooked a chicken for everyone in the house. Everyone ate it and some felt sick. Apparently some of the house mates have been doing comedy Indian accents (I didn't see this). This has exploded in to an international row.
The skinny comment is at best a bad joke and at worst the ramblings of an ignorant person. What is was not is racist, funny or intelligent. So why has this exploded on to the news scape?
First lets look at white middle England. On the whole they have no contact with Indians. They seem to think that because Indians are a minority in the UK they need to be protected. This is the type of politically correct action that we suffer again and again in the UK. I 'think' they mean well, but they treat minorities like they are fragile orchids that must be protected from anything that may cause offense. The trouble is they have no perspective. I would ask them to think when Shilpa was trying to say Dirk's name in an English accent was this racist. Of course not.
Secondly lets look at the right wing Indian movement in the UK. There is a movement amongst all the main 'beliefs' in the UK (Christians, Muslims and Hindus) to play the victim so that they can twist the arm of the government to increase legal protection for their faiths. NOTE this is not to protect people from abuse. It is to protect their religions from criticism. This is the perfect excuse for them to mobilize their troops to complain about how tough it is to live in the UK.
This has been blown so far out of proportion that effigies of channel 4 representatives have been burnt in India. It just so happens that Gordon Brown is in India at the moment. He has condemned the comments. Tony Blair has condemned the comments even though he doesn't watch the show. Why don't these politicians say what we all know they are thinking? They really don't care! They can't say this as they are worried about votes. In a country where there is low voter turnout minorities matter. They can't risk offending minorities. Well they can't offend them if they think they can get votes from them.
We have a great history in the UK of each class mocking the other through mimicking their accents. This is simply an extension of that. No one really should care and if they do.. I would like to suggest they say "I'm Bond, James Bond" in a Sean Connery accent and see how funny and inoffensive it is! If we lose the ability to mock each other and in the process make idiots of ourselves we lose a lot more then we gain.