A Leading NRI member of the European Parliament, Claude Ajit Moraes received the V K Krishna Menon award for 2009 for his outstanding achievement as a young Parliamentarian and assimilating the best of the East and the West.
Dr Cyriac Maprayil, Director of the London-based V K Krishna Menon Institute, presented the award to Moraes. Deputy Leader of the European Parliamentary Labour Party and Spokesperson for the Socialist and Democrat Group in the European Union on Justice and Home Affairs Sir Peter Lloyd, former British Home Minister, inaugurated the award ceremony by lighting the traditional Indian lamp in the presence of leading NRIs including a number of Councillors at the Malabar Junction Restaurant.
Receiving the award, Moraes an immigrant from Karnataka,described V K Krishna Menon as a "statesman who encapsulated all that is good in Indian values, diplomacy and leadership.