Karamjit Bhullar was born in the Amritsar district in Punjab, India. From an early age, his uncle who was in the army, took him under his wing, which enabled him to go to schools all over India and learn the cultures and languages of different parts of the country which in turn was a tremendous education.
Once his parents came to England, Karamjit joined them in London and completed his secondary education. He went back to Punjab University for his first degree, where he was also Captain of the cricket team and selected for Punjab. He completed his Master’s degree in London.
Karamjit’s working history has been varied, mostly in housing, race relations and regeneration. He have been a member of various boards such as; the Sport England Lottery Board and Housing Associations. He was also Chair of The Waterman’s Arts centre in Brentford.
Karamjit comes from a Sporting background, having played cricket and hockey at a reasonably high level and being involved in organising International tournaments. Through sports England, he was involved in major projects all over the country, the major ones being, the Manchester Commonwealth Games, as well as the Wembley Stadium Project. Currently he is the Chair of a multi-cultural centre in Hounslow.
1) Which place, or city or country do you most feel at home in?
I consider England and London as the place where I feel most at home. I believe London to be the most diverse city in the world, with a cultural scene second to none. The society in the UK is one of the most fair minded and civilised with a sense of standing up for the right thing, which is definitely needed with the current climate in the world.
2) What are your proudest achievements?
On a personal level, getting married to my late wife, who was one of the kindest and warm hearted persons. As far as working life is concerned, it was definitely the formation of a unique public and private sector partnership in West London. This involved indigenous businesses, such as BA, as well as Asian businesses including Noon products, TRS, The Radisson Edwardian hotel chain amongst a host of others; also Housing Associations and Universities in West London. This enabled me to do projects which were beneficial to the community as well as the business involved.
3) What inspires you?
Sporting achievements which could be team games or individuals, because of the sacrifice that has been made. Currently the “me too” movement has been tremendous in opening our eyes to the abusers. The students marching against the National Rifle Association (NRA) in the USA has been inspiring, I do hope something comes out of it. The movement by one million students who want to march against Brexit.
4) What has been biggest obstacle in your career?
I think not getting the right advice in moving forward because people have other agendas. The people who are not willing to embrace new ideas as they were frightened and overall this has also held the country back.
5) Who has been the biggest influence on your career to date?
When I was working as a Programme Director for West London Leadership, my boss Ian McIntosh who is now my friend, his guidance in forming the private/public sector partnerships was crucial. It was also a very enjoyable way of working. We felt proud of this as the bureaucrats were extremely sceptical that we would not be able to engage Asian businesses, they were proved wrong.
6) What is the best aspect about your current role?
My current role is being the Chair of the multicultural centre in Hounslow, where I volunteer my time. The centre has a wide range of leisure and wellbeing classes. A major part of our activities is a service that we have to provide healthy, freshly cooked meals four days a week for older people who are unable to cook for themselves and are housebound, part of our service is to deliver to their homes. It is heartening to see the joy on their faces as they sometimes have very little contact with people. The director of the centre is Channi Singh, who is very committed and hardworking, he is also a world famous singer.
7) And the worst?
The worst aspect is not having adequate funding to carry out our work satisfactorily, so that we can actually expand our services to meet demands. The funding situation is getting worse and worse with local authorities cutting funding year on year and abdicating responsibility for the voluntary sector. As we work under a tight budget, we are unable to recruit enough staff to meet the needs and demands.
8) What are your long term goals?
Our long term goals are to hopefully move into a larger centre, expand our services and aim towards self-sufficiency. We also aim to approach the business sector and large corporations in order to expand our funding base. There is a huge demand that we should provide the meal service for five days instead of four, so we will have to consider the monetary implications of this.
9) If you were Prime Minister, what one aspect would you change?
I would stop all privatisation and selling off the family silver. I would also stop the creeping private sector involvement in the NHS, unless it benefits the public and not the shareholders. I would take back into state ownership all utilities i.e. electricity, gas, BT, Royal Mail, but give them the freedom to trade as private sector companies in order to make profits for everyone.
The transportation sector would also come back to state ownership, as it is the railways are failing and being taken back into state ownership or being sold to nationalised companies from Germany.
10) If you were marooned on a desert island, which historical figure would you like to spend your time with and why.
I would be happy to spend time with Mogul Emperor Akbar. He was a tremendous patron of the Arts and Literature and created a library of over twenty-four thousand volumes written in Sanskrit, Urdu, Persian, Greek, Latin, Arabic and Kashmiri. He also created a library for women. I believe he was the fore runner of secularism. He created Din-I-Ilahi which is blending of religions of Hinduism, Christianity, Islam and Zoroastrianism. He was also a very tolerant and inclusive ruler. There are innumerable topics that I could talk to him about, especially as the foundations of a multicultural state were laid under him.
