PARIS: The UK government has decided to issue a commemorative coin to mark the 150th birthday anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, said Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer Sajid Javid. The Pakistani-origin British finance minister said he had asked the UK’s Royal Mint to work on the coin so that the world never forgot what Gandhi taught it. He announced this on Thursday at the annual GG2 ceremony in London to celebrate the British Asian success.
Javid has topped the power list released annually by the Asian Media Group (AMG), UK-based publishers behind the GG2. “Tonight’s awards celebrate the 150th birthday of Gandhi a fitting time to announce that I’ve asked the Royal Mint of the UK to propose a new commemorative coin in his honour. We should never forget what Gandhi taught the world,” said Javid.
“Gandhi taught us that power doesn’t just come from wealth or high office. We must always remember the values he lived his life by and that our parents brought with them when they arrived here all those years ago,” added Javid, a son of a British Pakistani bus driver who has often spoken of his humble origin. Priti Patel, the Indian-origin home secretary in the Boris Johnson led government, was named the second most influential person on the 2019 GG2 power list, rising 36 places from the pervious year due to her frontline cabinet post.
Fellow Indian-origin junior minister serving under Sajid Javid as the Chief Secretary to the UK Treasury, Rishi Sunak, the son-in-law of Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy, also made it to the top 10 at No. 7. The third spot on the list went to anti-Brexit campaigner Gina Miller, born Gina Nadira Singh to British Guyana’s former Attorney-General Doodnauth Singh.
Miller was followed by London’s Pakistani-origin mayor Sadiq Khan at No. 4. The UK’s senior-most counter-terrorism officer, Neil Basu, is ranked fifth and the Nobel Prize-winner and president of the Royal Society, Sir Venkatraman Ramakrishnan Venky, is ranked ninth. UK-based Indian-origin businessmen Hinduja brothers–Gopichand and Srichand– took the 10th spot in this year’s list. PTI
