The Indian High Commissioner H.E Vikram Doraiswami and wife Sangeeta Doraiswami hosted a dinner reception on Tuesday 28 January at the Great Hall, Guildhall, City of London to mark India’s 76th republic Day. Almost 900 people from the community gathered at this event. It was well attended by Ministers, MPs, Peers, Councillors, local council Mayors as well as entrepreneurs, corporate leaders, journalists and artists among others.
In attendance was guest of honours - Speaker of the House of Commons Sir Lindsay Hoyle and Health Secretary Wes Streeting. Also present was Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Migration and Citizenship Seema Malhotra MP, Shadow Foreign Secretary Priti Patel MP, Gagan Mohindra MP, Sojan Joseph MP, Bob Blackman MP, Barry Gardiner MP, Lord Dolar Popat, Lord Swraj Paul, Lord Rami Ranger, Lord Kulveer Ranger, former MP Virendra Sharma among others.
Speaking at the event High Commissioner H.E. Vikram Doraiswami spoke about India’s democracy unifying many diversities and the UK-India partnership and India’s commonalities with the UK in our parliamentary processes and election systems.
India remains UK’s largest trading partner with 42 billion pounds.
Guest of Honour, Sir Hoyle, Speaker of the House of Commons, spoke about his visit to New Delhi to attend G20. He also paid homage to the Indian soldiers who gave their life as part of the British Army, and the 31 Victorian Crosses awarded and 4000 rewards for gallantry.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting talked about the 1.8 million Indian diaspora in the UK as the ‘living bridge’, the contributions of the community in various fields including business, science and engineering and cultural exchanges and paid tribute to the diaspora for its success stories including to the achievements of UK’s first ever Indian-origin Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
The reception ended with a cultural programme and a lavish Indian buffet dinner.
