The political tsunami unleashed by Prime Minister John Key's sudden announcement of resignation on Monday has dwarfed many other political news of interest.
One such news that can potentially diminish fast from the public attention under the massive emotional deluge precipitated by Mr Key's resignation and the ensuing contest for the next leader of the National Party is the news that the dream of sending the first Indian-origin electorate MP to parliament came to a grinding halt on Saturday, December 3.
Although nipped in the bud, it came tantalisingly close to realisation in the recently concluded Mt Roskill by-election.
Just before the election day, Indian Weekender came out with its editorial piece stating that let the best candidate win in this Mt Roskill by-election.
Michael Wood's sweeping majority has put aside any doubt who was the best candidate in this by-election.
The nature of his landslide victory would have necessitated multidimensional analysis on local and national politics if otherwise not precluded by the sudden announcement of Prime Minister's resignation.
This piece picks up a line of analysis about the grinding halt to the budding dream of sending the first Indian-origin electorate MP to the Parliament.
It is not to suggest that there was a consolidated urge within the wider Indian community to see an Indian-origin electorate MP.
It is only to suggest that Mt Roskill is one of the most ethnically diverse constituency in New Zealand with roughly around 20 per cent population of Indian descent and two candidates who succeeded in making most of the pre-election noise were of Indian origin.
One was self-made successful businessman Roshan Nauhria, who formed his political party claiming to speak exclusively for ethnic immigrants in New Zealand.
The other was sitting National List MP Dr Parmjeet Parmar, who had a good run in the last general election at the same Mt Roskill seat against the mighty Phil Goff.
It will not be an exaggeration to assert that it was Dr Parmar's candidacy that raised the most expectation of seeing the first Indian-origin electorate MP in parliament.
In fact, this was a projection made by some National supporters and members of Dr Parmar's campaigning team as reported by Indian Weekender previously.
Many National supporters have then seen this by-election as an opportunity to effectuate some dramatic results after Mr Goff's fortuitous departure from the scene.
If that was a chance at all, then it has been squandered or lost for some considerable time. Mr Wood's landslide victory has set aside any such hopes in the near future.
Adding to this is the Labour's pre-election claim that has been gaining traction in media post election results that the Nationals chose a weak candidate.
It is of some interest to investigate further about this lost opportunity to send the first Indian-origin electorate MP and the perceived weak candidacy of Dr Parmar.
Indian Weekender initially spoke to several community leaders about Dr Parmar's defeat, as these leaders are often expected to be bearers of community sentiments and aspirations. So it was natural to expect to get some real reasons behind Dr Parmar's loss.
Our efforts were checkmated by astonishing levels of "political correctness" in this post-Trump era of politics where political correctness stands threatened altogether.
Most of the community leaders even failed to acknowledge that Dr Parmar has experienced a crushing defeat.
Kuldeep Arora, the owner of the India Gate restaurant and a Mt Roskill resident, expressed "satisfaction" in the number of votes secured by both Indian-origin candidates.
"I would not say that Dr Parmar fared poorly or even Roshan Nauhria, for a first-time aspirant in electoral politics," Mr Arora said.
Similarly, Prakash Biradar, secretary New Zealand Indian Citizen Association (NZICA) was unaware of the six per cent decline in Dr Parmar's votes from the last general election and affirmed that "she was well connected with the community."
Many other community leaders chose to find respite in Mt Roskill's traditional affinity with the Labour Party and Phil Goff's personal legacy in the electorate.
Petrified with this level of "political correctness" in the community leader's take and the squandered opportunity of sending an Indian-descent electorate MP to parliament, Indian Weekender dug in deep to directly engage with the community.
Unsurprisingly, in this endeavour, some key factors emerged, which better explain Dr Parmar's electoral defeat and threw some light for the future if the dream of Indian-origin electorate MP has to be ever realised.
Vaishali Sharma, a doctor and a resident in Mt Roskill said, "Dr Parmar is only a face of the National Party who goes to community events and give speeches but does not appear to be connected with the community.
“She is very cold and straight-faced.”
Echoing similar views was another resident of Mt Roskill, Mukesh Kumar, who argued that "although she was seen everywhere around campaigning, she was not connecting with the people. That is why she got fewer votes than the last time.”
Another Mt Roskill resident who preferred to remain anonymous commented that "Dr Parmar was of little help for the real problems in the community.”
Nikhil Kalluri, a resident of Richardson Street, took exception to the fact that Dr Parmar was seen too often with the prime minister rather than with the community.
"That was more a reflection of arrogance," Mr Kalluri said.
Almost as a rule, everyone in the community compared Dr Parmar's perceived distance from the community with Phil Goff's personal connect with everyone he met in public.
In fact, hearing from the community, it will not be an exaggeration to assert that many residents have extended their loyalty from Mr Goff to the next Labour candidate Mr Wood.
Although, it will be unfair to draw any comparison between Dr Parmar and Mr Goff, who has mastered a personal brand style politics that possibly only Mr Key does better than him in the current New Zealand politics.
It will be naive for Dr Parmar or any other future Indian-origin aspirant to parliament to ignore the underlying message of "need for connecting more" with the community.
There is no point in hiding behind the National Party assertion that Mt Roskill was a safe seat for the Labour and "we were not expecting to win.”
The main political parties are welcome to make their independent assessment of by-election results.
Jasbir Dhillon, president of Global Indians, a National Party outfit, declined to comment on this seemingly overwhelming community feeling of disconnect with Dr Parmar.
"There is always an opportunity to connect more with the Indian community and translate that into a win for the National Party in 2017 that should not be missed,” Mr Dhillon said.
Indian Weekender’s attempt to get comments from Dr Parmjeet Parmar on this line of enquiry was unsuccessful as she chose to deflect the question and continue with a standard thank you message to the Indian community.
From an Indian community perspective, this by-election was a lost opportunity to send the first Indian-origin electorate MP to the parliament and the community, community leaders, commentators, and political aspirants should not leave the scene without some critical learning for the future.