Himanshu Gulati (born 16 June 1988) is a Norwegian politician representing the Progress Party. Gulati was the chairperson of the Progress Party's Youth from 2012 to 2014. He served as State Secretary in the Ministry of Justice and Public Security from 2013 to 2014, and at the Office of the Prime Minister from 2014 until 2017. In 2017 he was elected as a representative in the Norwegian parliament from Akershus, where he has served in the Committee on Justice. [1]
Born in Førde, Norway to an Indian family who immigrated to Norway from New Delhi during the 1970s, his father is a physician, and his mother is a physiotherapist. He grew up in the rural village of Lavik, Høyanger where his father worked as a general practitioner before relocating to Lillestrøm, Akershus at the age of fourteen. Parallel to his involvement in politics, Gulati for a time studied medicine before deciding it was not for him. He later received a bachelor's degree in Economy and Leadership from BI Norwegian Business School, as well as having attended a six-month course in filmmaking at an academy in India.
After taking an early interest in politics, he joined the FpU, or the youth organization of the Progress Party at the age of fifteen. He was elected chairperson of the Progress Party's Youth, on 24 March 2012 after previously having been vice-chairperson for two years. Apart from this he is also currently serving as a deputy member to the Storting . [2] [3] On a local level he has since 2007 been a representative on the Skedsmo municipal council, representing FrP. He was an outspoken critic of the Red-green coalition, especially on issues of foreign policy, immigration and taxation. [4]
When Solberg's Cabinet was formed in October 2013 after the Norwegian parliamentary election, Gulati was appointed state secretary for Anders Anundsen in Ministry of Justice and Public Security. Aged 25, he became the youngest state secretary in the cabinet. [5]
| Year [6] [7] | Country of residence | Award Name | Given by | Field of Merit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 |  Norway | Pravasi Bharatiya Samman | President of India | Public Service |
The Progress Party's Youth, is the youth wing of the Norwegian political party the Progress Party. It is generally considered to be more aligned towards classical liberalism than the Progress Party. The organization has active chapters in all counties of Norway as well as in over 50 municipalities.
Ahmed Mohamed Kathrada OMSG, sometimes known by the nickname "Kathy", was a South African politician and anti-apartheid activist.
Donald Rabindranauth Ramotar is a Guyanese politician who was President of Guyana from 2011 to 2015. He was also the General Secretary of the People's Progressive Party (PPP) from 1997 to 2013.
Knut Arild Hareide is a Norwegian politician who served as a member of parliament from Hordaland and as the leader of the Christian Democratic Party from 2011 to 2019. He served as Minister of Transport and Communications from 2020 to 2021, and as Minister of the Environment from 2004 to 2005 in the second Bondevik cabinet. In 2007, he announced he would step down from the national political scene for the time being, but he returned when he was nominated as the top candidate for the Christian Democratic Party ticket in Akershus in the 2009 election where he won the county's leveling seat. After Dagfinn Høybråten stepped down as party leader, Hareide was unanimously elected to take his place at the 2011 party convention. In the 2013 election, Hareide was reelected to parliament, this time from his home county of Hordaland.
The Pravasi Bharatiya Samman is the highest Indian award for Overseas Indians or an organisation or institution established and run by Overseas Indian diaspora, constituted by the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, Government of India in conjunction with the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, to honour exceptional and meritorious contribution in their chosen field/profession. The award is given by the President of India. Since 2016, the Government of India has doubled the number of awardees each year to 30 after a decision to grant the award once every two years.
Pravasi Bharatiya Divas is a celebratory day observed on 9 January by the Republic of India to mark the contribution of the Overseas Indian community towards the development of India. The day commemorates the return of Mahatma Gandhi from South Africa to Mumbai on 9 January 1915.
Hans Frode Kielland Asmyhr is a Norwegian lawyer and politician representing the Progress Party. He is currently a representative of Akershus in the Storting and was first elected in 2005.
André Oktay Dahl is a Norwegian law graduate who was a politician representing the Conservative Party. He served as a representative of Akershus in the Storting and was first elected in 2005. He was a reserve candidate in the two previous periods, and took Jan Petersen's seat while Petersen was a cabinet minister from 2001 to 2005.
Ulf Isak Leirstein is a Norwegian politician, formerly for the Progress Party and then independent, and a member of the Storting from 2005 to 2021. He left the party after it was revealed that he had sent pornographic pictures to a mailing list belonging to the Progress Party's youth wing.
Rikke Lind is a Norwegian politician for the Labour Party.
Per-Willy Trudvang Amundsen is a Norwegian politician for the Progress Party who served as Minister of Justice from December 2016 to January 2018. He previously served as state secretary in the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development from 2013, and represented Troms in the Norwegian parliament from 2005 until 2013. He was re-elected in 2017.
Sylvi Listhaug is a Norwegian politician who has been the leader of the Progress Party since 2021.
Mazyar Keshvari is an Iranian-born Norwegian former politician for the Progress Party and a convicted felon who is serving two prison sentences for fraud and violent threats. He was elected as a substitute member of the Norwegian parliament for the city of Oslo in 2013, representing the right-wing and anti-immigration Progress Party, and attended parliamentary sessions from 2013 to 2018 as the substitute of the mandate holder Siv Jensen who has been on leave from parliament during her government service. As a politician he was known for taking a hard stance on immigration, calling for a complete ban on further immigration to Norway, a stop to the practice of accepting asylum seekers in Norway, and the deportation of immigrants convicted of crimes. In 2019 he was convicted of aggravated fraud for defrauding the Norwegian parliament and in 2020 he was sentenced to 11 months imprisonment. He left the Norwegian parliament following his indictment in 2018 and also left the Progress Party in October 2019. In 2019 he was also arrested and charged with making violent threats, and he was convicted and sentenced to an additional four months in prison in 2020.
Hans Andreas Limi is a Norwegian businessperson and politician for the Progress Party. He is currently an MP for the Akershus constituency since 2013 and the party's first deputy leader since 2023. He previously served as the party's parliamentary leader from 2017 to 2020.
Tom Staahle is a Norwegian politician for the Progress Party.
Sivert Haugen Bjørnstad is a Norwegian politician for the Progress Party. He was elected to the Norwegian parliament in the 2013, becoming the parliament's youngest member.
Halvard Ingebrigtsen is a Norwegian politician for the Labour Party.
Priyanca Radhakrishnan is a New Zealand politician who has been elected to the New Zealand parliament since the 2017 general election as a representative of the New Zealand Labour Party and was Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector from 2020 to 2023.
Une Aina Bastholm is a Norwegian politician and former leader of Green Party. She represented Oslo in the Storting from 2017 to 2021 and during this time was the only member of her party with a parliamentary seat. She was elected to represent Akershus following the 2021 election.
Rajni Kanabar was an M.B.B.S. doctor and philanthropist belonging to the third generation of an Indian-origin family in Tanzania. He was the founder-chairman of Regency Medical Centre in Dar es Salaam, and the initiator-convenor of the Tanzania Heart Babies Project, which he established in the year 1979. Born in Mwanza, he was presented with the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award as a person of Indian origin, from the Government of India in 2010, for facilitating the surgeries of children in Tanzania suffering from congenital heart diseases. He also received the PBS Award Label from the High Commission of India in Tanzania in 2013, and the Order of the United Republic of Tanzania Medal in 2014.