Karan: Celebration time

London, May 4: The father was an Indian Army general; the son is to be a British Lord.

Karan Bilimoria, 44, founder and chief executive of Cobra Beer, popular for washing down chicken tikka masala, has been elevated to the House of Lords, it was announced today.

Bilimoria is the son of the late Lt General Faridoon (“Billy”) Bilimoria, who led his unit, 2nd Battalion of the 5th Gorkha Rifles, in the 1971 India-Pakistan conflict and retired in 1989 as General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Central Army Command.

Although his son is best known for his beer, he has also a reasonably drinkable wine, General Bilimoria, named after his father.

Today, Bilimoria said he was both delighted and humbled by the peerage and added: “I look forward very much to contributing and participating in the work of the House, to working with my new colleagues and to serving my country as best as I can.”

He and his wife, Heather, have four young children ? two sons and two daughters ? who will now be able to have buttered crumpets with their father in the excellent House of Lords tea room (Lord Swraj Paul offers scones to his guests but keeps away from anything fattening himself).

Also among the seven who were today appointed non-political peers is Professor Kamlesh Patel, an academic and government adviser on mental health, drugs and ethnicity.

The seven were recommended to the British Prime Minister by the House of Lords Appointments Commission, which had earlier blocked nominations to the peerage of two other Asian businessmen, Sir Gulam Noon and Chai Patel, on the grounds that they had given undeclared loans to the Labour Party.

In Noon’s case, he did declare his loan but was told by Lord Levy, who was collecting funds on behalf of the Labour Party, to make a fresh declaration, mentioning only the donation he had given and not the loan. It was on this technicality that Noon’s peerage was blocked.

Bilimoria, who was educated at Hebron School, Lushington Hall, Ooty, and at Cambridge, is the UK chairman of the Indo-British Partnership Network (IBPN), which was set up in April last year to facilitate bilateral business links. Its British board of 24 members consists of leading UK businesses actively engaged in Indo-British commerce.

According to Bilimoria, “the relationship between Britain and India is a strong and special one, and the IBPN will work proactively to help significantly increase trade, business and investment between Britain and India both ways”.

“The potential for our two great nations is enormous,” Bilimoria said.