Check Out What Indians Think of Rishi Sunak
19:06 GMT, 25 October 2022
After a bitter defeat earlier this year, Rishi Sunak, a Hindu, received perhaps his greatest Diwali gift – the British prime ministership. While the fate of his term is currently unclear, one thing is certain – not everyone is optimistic about his appointment.
Sputnik42-year-old former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak was elected head of Britain's governing Conservative Party and formally appointed UK prime minister to lead his country out of the economic turmoil that erupted under his predecessor during her mere 44 days in office.
Sunak, who has always been open about his Hindu background, has made waves on social media, especially in India. While many netizens applaud Britain's inclusivity, some are not sure whether Sunak is particularly different from his predecessors.
Take a look at a handful of recent takes Indians have had on the UK's new PM.
Numerous netizens recalled a quote by perhaps Britain's most famous politician, Winston Churchill, who once questioned the ability of "Indians to be good leaders." His remark seems especially strange today, when Churchill's own country now relies on a leader of Indian origin to guide it through an economic crisis that has seen at least two prime ministers resign.
"In 1947 on the cusp of Indian Independence, Winston Churchill supposedly said '…all Indian leaders will be of low calibre & men of straw.' Today, during the 75th year of our Independence, we’re poised to see a man of Indian origin anointed as PM of the UK. Life is beautiful," Indian billionaire Anand Mahindra tweeted.
Aside from his ethnic background, Sunak has also become the country's youngest prime minister since Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool, who took office in 1812.
The oldest president in US history, Joe Biden, was among those who congratulated the new British prime minister. Biden at first mispronounced his name, referring to him as "Rashee Sanook," and then said, "go figure."
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also expressed his happiness over Sunak's appointment. Modi wrote a tweet in which he warmly congratulated the new British prime minister and called him a "living bridge of UK Indians."
Other prominent Indian political figures also congratulated Sunak, including Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Gujarat Minister of State Harsh Sanghavi. Officials expressed pride in the first person of Indian origin becoming UK prime minister and hoped it would usher in a "golden age" in British-Indian relations.
"Congratulations and best wishes to Shri RishiSunak Ji on becoming the Prime Minister of UK. Indians all over the world are proud of your historic achievement. A new golden period of India-UK relations will commence under your leadership," an Uttar Pradesh MP tweeted.
However, not all Indians shared in the optimism of an ethnic South Asian becoming leader of the former colonial empire, stating that people of Indian origin such as Kamala Harris, Sundar Pichai, and others do not usually care about their ancestral homeland.
"Indians living in India must stop celebrating people of Indian origin securing high seats in foreign governments and MNCs. From Sundar Pichai and Parag Agrawal to tenuously Indian Kamala Harris, they do nothing for India. Dear cheerleaders of Rishi Sunak, he is no different," Hindustan Samachar editor Surajit Dasgupta wrote on his Twitter account.
Other netizens went even further and questioned whether Sunak is a real Indian at all, given that none of his relatives have ties to post-partition India.
Even Sunak's religious beliefs were questioned, as some netizens began to doubt his devotion to Hinduism. Two photos of the UK prime minister have gone viral and are often placed next to each other: the first shows his respect for cows, while the other shows him posing with steaks - eating beef is a sin in Hinduism.
It also comes as a surprise to some netizens that Rishi Sunak is not a "slumdog PM" since he has great personal wealth. Sunak has never hid his prosperous upbringing and aristocratic connections. In a 2001 BBC documentary called The Middle Classes: Their Rise and Proliferation, he claimed to have upper-class and aristocratic friends, but no "working class" ones.
Sunak's wife is the daughter of Indian billionaire Narayana Murthy whose net worth is estimated at around $4.5 billion. Some netizens even started joking that the businessman would be made the "father-in-law of the nation."
"I'm hoping Rishi Sunak becomes PM so that UK can declare Narayana Murthy as father-in-law of the nation," Twitter personality Ramesh Srivats wrote.