Aam Aadmi Party’s MP Raghav Chadha received the India UK Outstanding Achiever honour in London on Wednesday.
New Delhi,UPDATED: Jan 29, 2023 00:02 IST
After accepting the award Raghav Chadha said, “it belongs to an extraordinary party called the AAP”.
By Pankaj Jain: The Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha received the India UK Outstanding Achiever honour at an award ceremony in London on January 25.
The MP was honoured as an Outstanding Achiever in the Government and Politics category, which recognises individuals demonstrating excellence in changing how democracy and justice are experienced and tackling challenging societal problems for the good of people and the planet.
On receiving the award, Raghav Chadha said, “This award isn’t a recognition of an individual’s achievements. Though received by an ordinary individual from an ordinary background with an ordinary skill set, this award belongs to an extraordinary party called the AAP and the extraordinary leadership of the person I have the distinguished honour of calling my mentor, Arvind Kejriwal.”
The honours covered 75 high achievers and five Outstanding Achievers to mark 75 years of India’s independence.
“I dedicate this award to my leader Arvind Kejriwal and thousands of those faceless and nameless grassroots workers for their unflinching and unwavering dedication to serving India,” he said.
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The India UK Achievers Honours have been created by the National Indian Students and Alumni Union (NISAU) UK in partnership with the British Council in India, the UK Government Department for International Trade (DIT) and UK Parliament to celebrate the achievements of Indian students who studied at British universities.
During the event, the MP recalled many of the founding fathers of Indian democracy who had studied in the UK, including Mahatma Gandhi, BR Ambedkar, and Jawaharlal Nehru.
“This award ceremony is being held on the eve of the Indian Republic Day, which celebrates the Indian Constitution of which Dr BR Ambedkar, an alumnus of a UK institution, was the architect”, he said.
Reflecting on his journey as a student of the largest democracy who studied in the world’s oldest democracy, he said that today there’s more of India in Britain than Britain in India – be it the Koninoor or Rishi Sunak, history has come full circle.
Chadha said his student times in the UK changed his worldview and opened new doors. “LSE is more like an Indian university on British soil”, he said while speaking on the growing number of Indian students in the UK.
Notably, Indian students now form the largest student community in the UK, surpassing China.
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Raghav Chadha studied at the London School of Economics (LSE), after which he set up a boutique wealth management firm in London before returning to India. Chadha was also part of the India Against Corruption Movement seeking anti-corruption legislation.
The movement later culminated in the formation of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), spearheaded by one of the leading faces of the campaign, Arvind Kejriwal.
In 2022, at 33, Raghav Chadha became the youngest Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha, the Upper House of the Indian parliament, where he represents the state of Punjab.
The award was the second international recognition for the AAP MP within a year. Last year, he was honoured as a Young Global Leader by the most coveted World Economic Forum.
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