London : Britain's Prince Philip has got into a controversy again -this time for cracking a joke about the indian surname
Patel, a media report said on Tuesday.
the Duke of Edinburgh, in fact, joked with Indian-ori-gin business leader leader Atul Patel during a reception for 400
influential British-Indians at Buckingham Palace on Monday,'The Sun' reported.
As the guests lined up to meet the queen and her hub by Prince Philip, who hosted by Prince Philip, who hosred the
evening to celebrate this week's state visit by India's President Pratibha Patil, the 88-year-old royal turned to greet business
chief Patel.
And, after glancing at Patel's name badge, he was
quoted as saying, "There's a lot of your family in tonight"
The comment appeared to jokingly suggest that
all Patels are related, The surname, ehich originates
from Gujarat, is thesecond most popular in Britain after
Singh. It is also the county's 24th most common with
an estimated 670,000 Patels living here.
Prince Philip's words have been condemned by
Graham Smith, spokesman for Republic, a campaign
group committed to abolishing the monarchy.
"Making a joke about people called Patel is
deeply embarrassing given the timing of the Indian
state visit. At best it's a comment that shows he's out of touch and out of date.
There are a large number of Patels living in Britain and many will find it offensive
that Prince Philip tries to joke that they're all related,"Smith said.
However, a spokesman for Patel confirmed the exchange but insisted
that the 47-year-old chief executive of the LHA-Asra group, one of Britain's leading
housing as sociations, took it as a joke.
"Absolutely no offence was taken at all by Atul. It was taken in a very
light-hearted way," his spokesman said.
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