London: The UK government will issue a commemorative coin to mark the 150th birthday anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, according to British Finance Minister Sajid Javid.
The Pakistani-origin minister said he had asked the UK’s Royal Mint to work on the coin so that the world never forgot what Mahatma Gandhi taught it.
Sajid Javid announced the plan Thursday at the annual ‘GG2 Leadership Awards’ event held here to celebrate the most influential members of UK’s South Asian community.
“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 the British Chancellor of the Exchequer.
In 1888, Mahatma Gandhi left for London to attend law school. He attended the University College of London law school and was called to the English bar in 1891. Right after, he promptly left for India. However, he kept on coming back to the city. His last visit to London was in 1931 when he came for a roundtable conference on India’s future.
“Mahatma 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,” Javid, who topped the power list released annually by the Asian Media Group (AMG), UK-based publishers behind the GG2.
Son of a British-Pakistani bus driver, Javid has often spoken of his humble origin. His parents moved from Pakistan to Britain before he was born in 1969.
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 previous year due to her frontline cabinet post.
PTI