Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: Twenty-three-year-old Tushar Kumar has created history by becoming the youngest Indian-origin Mayor in the UK. Tushar became the youngest-ever Mayor of Elstree and Borehamwood Town Council, while a week later, his mother Parveen Rani was elected as the first Indian-origin Mayor of Hertsmere Borough Council. While Tushar was elected as Mayor on May 13, Parveen became Mayor on May 20.
Tushar, who was born in Rohtak, India, said he was proud to be both British and Indian. “The UK has given me so much, it’s given me friends, education, healthcare, and I want to give something back,” he said, reported BBC.
Sunil Dahiya, a businessman, said when he, along with his wife Parveen and two children, moved to the UK in 2013. The family, whose ancestral village Rohna falls in Kharkhoda in Haryana’s Sonipat, had been living in Rohtak for a long time before moving to the UK in 2013. “We had not come with any specific thing in mind when we moved to the UK in 2013… Tushar was just 10 years then,” he told a news agency.
Dahiya said Tushar and his mother always liked helping the community and doing social service. Tushar was just 20 when he got elected as a councillor while he was in a college in London.
Tushar strongly feels age should never be a barrier to entering public and community service and his message to the youth is that they can enter public or community service without waiting for a certain age. He strongly believes that one must stay rooted in one’s culture and heritage, said his father.
