The Prime Minister hosted a Vaisakhi celebration at 10 Downing Street on Wednesday 17 April. Attended by almost 140 people from the community, were joined by the children from Nishkam Primary School in Birmingham, who sang prayers. In attendance among guests were Cllr Reena Ranger OBE, Manish Tiwari, Jasvir Singh CBE, Param Singh, Dr Mohan Kaul, Ranjit Baxi, Amarjeet Singh Bhamra to name a few. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak who was hosting the event and was attending in person, welcomed the audience with a traditional Sikh prayer, “Waheguruji ka khalsa, Waheguruji ki fateh”, which was joined by all in chorus.In his speech, Mr Sunak spoke about his grandparents who hailed from Punjab and the fabulous practice of langar, which he called “that lovely tradition of serving food to all regardless of gender, faith or background.”He said, “It's a great pleasure to welcome you all to Downing Street. My own dadaji, dadiji, nanaji and naaniji hailed from Punjab. So it feels particularly special that we're hosting a reception in Number 10. And it's a chance for me to particularly share that Vaisakhi spirit, the idea of service to one's community that we see in towns and cities across Britain…
“Now, I've always particularly love the ‘kada prasad’ growing up. It's extraordinary though to think of Vaisakhi dating back to 1699. Its origins in celebrating the harvest, the birth of Khalsa, and flourishing for generations spreading the Guru Granth Sahib, a message of truth, compassion, equality, humility, and service.
“This giving and this service to society is embodied by Nagar Kirtans, bringing communities together. And over the past year, I've been proud to meet some incredible exemplars of those great values – Preet Chandi, who not only served in the British Army, but it's now the fastest woman to the South Pole, Rajinder Singh Dhatt, a veteran of the Second World War, and found the undivided Indian next Service Association and also Navjot Sawhney, who is in America right now, raising money, millions in fact, from the Whirlpool Foundation. Money, which will go towards 10,000 of the manual washing machines that he created to help people in low income communities, who might otherwise be washing clothes by hand. And speaking of extraordinary people, we also now have Fauja Singh, the world's oldest marathon runners.
“I will say that there are many more incredible people living those values day in day out in our police, our armed forces, in business, education, health and so much more.
“So let me just end with a personal thank you to everyone here and to Sikh families across Britain. I wish you all peace, joy, prosperity, this Vaisakhi.”
