Mahatma Gandhi Jayanti celebrated in UK

LONDON: Mahatma Gandhi's 145th birth anniversary was today marked with bhajans and Vedic prayers at his iconic statue at Tavistock Square in London.

The Indian High Commission here organised the event attended by High Commissioner Ranjan Mathai, Deputy Mayor of Camden, Councillor Lazarro Pietragnoli, British-Indian MPs Shailesh Vara and Virendra Sharma, chairman of India League CB Patel and other representatives from the Indian community in Britain.

Mathai said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's cleanliness drive has made its way to the corridors of India House here in London.

"Today we at the High Commission also took a pledge to join the cleanliness mission," he said.

Floral tributes to the Mahatma were followed by a performance of his favourite bhajans - Vaishnava Jan and Raghupati Raghav - by young members of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Centre in the UK.

Many of the diginitaries also made reference to a new Gandhi statue to be unveiled at Parliament Square in central London by early next year.

"That statue will become another place representative of the message of peace and non-violence of this great human being," said Vara, UK minister for the courts.

Born on October 2, 1869 in Gujarat's Porbandar, Gandhi had his early political training in South Africa while working among the local Indian community facing discrimination.