Virendra Sharma is a Living Legend
Tue 31 Jan 2023
The veteran politician received the Living Legend Award at India UK Achievers Honour event in London on Wednesday 25 January 2023.
The student organisation praised Virendra Sharma for his dedication to the "living bridge", his tireless support for Indian students in the UK through the pandemic, and his own political journey.
Virendra Sharma is founding patron of NISAU and Chair of APPG India (The All-Party Parliamentary Group on India Trade and Investment).
The decade-old NISAU honoured 75 exceptional achievers on India's 75th independence anniversary.
Virendra Sharma said, "It is a great honour to be given this award, and I am delighted to have worked with NISAU for years now. They do great work, supporting Indian students in the UK and standing up for their rights, and they did incredible things in helping the Indian government coordinate the evacuation of students from Ukraine in the face of the Russian war."
"I look forward to working with NISAU for many more years, and want to congratulate all the achievers recognised at the awards. NISAU, the organisers and the sponsors should be proud of their work in making this happen."
Mr Sharma has been busy promoting a lot of worthwhile causes.
Is Virendra Sharma a living Legend?
His constituents might not agree.
Ealing Southall Constituency Labour Party (CLP) passed a vote of no confidence in Virendra Sharma MP, in March 2019.
The vote of no confidence was passed by 41 votes to 18. The motion on that day was "Ealing Southall Constituency Labour Party has no confidence in our MP Virendra Sharma. Mr Sharma has failed to work with the local membership or act as an adequate constituency MP."
He blamed racism for losing the vote of no confidence. He claimed the vote was motivated on religious and racial grounds.
Dr Onkar Sahota, the chair of the local constituency party, and GLA member would strongly disagree.
Senior Labour figures were accused of interference when they suspended the trigger ballots process to select a new candidate. The next general election looming may have had some bearing on it as well. The 2019 general election was held on Thursday, 12 December 2019.
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