Man adopted from K’taka first Indian-origin MP in Switzerland
His biological mother Anasuiya could never have imagined that Niklaus-Samuel Gugger, whom she abandoned in a hospital 48 years ago just after his birth, would be the first Indianorigin person to be elected to the Swiss parliament.
Born in CSI Lombard Memorial Hospital, run by Basel Mission, in Karnataka’s Udupi town, on May 1, 1970, Gugger was adopted by a Swiss couple within a week of his abandonment.
Talking to IANS at the first PIO-Parliamentarian Conference here last week, Gugger said: “My mother, Anasuiya, handed me over to Dr ED Pflugfelder -now deceased -- just after my birth, requesting him to give me to a couple who could rear me in a better way and help me make a good career.”
For Gugger, coming to India was an emotional moment. Narrating his journey from the Karnataka hospital to the Swiss parliament, he said he spent the initial four years of his life in Thalassery in Kerala where his new mother Elizabeth worked as a teacher of German and English and father Fritz was a tool maker in Nattur Technical Training Foundation (NTTF).
In 2002, he was elected town councillor from Winterthur city northeast of Zurich and near the German border. “And subsequently, in November 2017, I was elected as a member of Switzerland parliament on the ticket of the Evangelical People’s Party -a minority party. I am the first Indian to be elected as an MP in Switzerland’s parliament.”
Gugger said he would be the only Indian in the Swiss parliament for at least the next decade as there was no other active Indian-origin politician in the country. IANS
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