Manish Sarat

Manish Sarat (born 3 January 1965) is the Liberal Democrat MP for Brent East since 2005 and the official spokesperson on mutualisation and culture, media and sport since 2007. He is also a children's and cookery books writer.

Born in Delhi, India, Manish moved with his parents and siblings to Great Britain in 1979 at the age of 14, where he graduated from the London Metropolitan University with a Master degree in Social Work. He was quickly employed by Unison as a social worker in the metropolitan area of Brent, London.

Early life
Manish Sarat was born in Delhi, India on 3 January 1965 as the son of two strongly religious parents. His father, Rohit Naveen Sarat, a miner in the area around Delhi, was a steadfast man. He taught Manish everything he ought to know about religion, and Manish was raised deeply religious.

He was educated at the Delhi Public School until the age of 14, after which he and his family migrated to Great Britain, situating themselves in the metropolitan area of Greater London. Here his father was employed at a local factory and his mother, Akshita Sarat, was forced into working as a washing wife to assist in feeding the family.

In his teen years, Manish was first employed as a paperboy and later as a waiter at the local "Common Café & Bistro", where his passion for food was developed. He graduated from the London Metropolitan University with a Masters degree in Social Work.

Social worker
After graduating from the London Metropolitan University in 1989, Manish was employed by Unison as a social worker in Brent, London. Here he functioned as a mediator for socially exposed youngsters and their families. A majority of his work was with ethinic minorities.

Writer
Manish's breakthrough as a writer came in 2007 when he published the children's book "My Indian Story Book". The book was one of Indian children's stories, and he had himself carefully selected them all and translated every single story and legend into English himself. Many of the stories were written in English for the first time in that book.

He has also released cookery books, mainly focusing on the Indian kitchen, but none of them have had any major breakthroughs in popular Britain.

Early career
Manish joined the Liberal Democrats initially after graduating from the London Metropolitan University. However, when he was still studying, he was a sound campaigner for pacifism, humanism and liberalism, a member of several political groups in and outside the university. It was not until the 1997 General Election that Manish became involved in national politics, being a part-time campaign adviser for the Liberal Democrats in the borough of Brent.

In the 2001 General Elections, he contested the Labour seat of Brent East seat but was 15,061 votes short of a majority, entering a third place. In 2004, he contested the Labour Birmingham Hodge Hill seat, but was 461 votes short of a majority, coming in second. However, in the 2005 General Election, he successfully contested the Brent East seat again, winning a majority of 2,712. In the 2007 General Election, he held the Brent East seat for the Liberal Democrats, keeping his majority.

Spokesperson
In 2007, Manish Sarat noted himself on the issues of terrorism and equality, and was selected as spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats on mutualisation, culture, media and sport.

Equality and LGBT rights
During an interview on May 23rd, Manish is cited to have said the following:

"[...] the greatest political achievement in modern days is equality. Not only equality across genders, but equality across sexuality, ethnicity, disabilities, age and of course, gender. That's what I'm fighting hard for, and what many other Liberal Democrats are also fighting hard for."

In the 2005 General Elections, a majority of his campaign was fought on equality and more LGBT rights, something that has also characterised his parliamentary work. Public gay, he has also attended Gay Pride marches and fought for LGBT marriages among other things.

Multiculturalism
Indian-born and immigrant. This caused quite a lot of controversity in the 2004 when he was attacked by the National Front candidate, Jim Starkey, over his ethnicity and sexuality. Manish quickly made a rebuttal at a public debate with Starkey, in which he called multiculturalism an:

"[...] important aspect to British culture. What makes Britain great is the strong sense of multiculturalism; I'm born in India, son of a miner, and now I'm standing here fighting with you for the honour to call myself MP for Birmingham Hodge Hill. My chances were minimal, but I succeeded. That isn't because of liberalism, it's because Britain is a multicultural and open society in which everyone is accepted. Ethnicity, sexuality, disabilities ... it doesn't matter. What matters in Britain is you as a person, and that's what I love [...]"

In the 2007 General Election, he pledged that he would do what he could to open British border to immigrants and ensure that more funds as well as radical new methods were used to strengthen integration.

Culture and media
Manish pledged in an interview from 12 October, that he would fight for a constant change in British culture, ensuring that the minorities too get the possibility to affect the British culture. He also said that he was in slight favour of making the media more independent.

Personal life
Manish met his first serious partner in Berlin in 1985, Simon Bern, and their relationship lasted until 1990. In 1992, he met his second partner, James William Smithe in Rome, and their relationship lasted until 2005.

Manish has classified himself as atheist.