Good luck, Mr. Sunak!

Good luck, Mr. Sunak!

We Indians might seem indifferent or unconcerned about many issues, yet when it comes to politics, the fact remains that we are politically a very aware nation.

Most of the people on the street have definite views on who (and why) should be our prime minister in the 2024 and later elections. Why, thousands of Indians give up their regular daily chores or the day’s bread and butter to crowd in sweltering heat for political rallies during election season to show their support for these leaders. That they get a measly sum of Rs 50 to 100 with a packet of stale poori-subzi, does not put a dent on their commitment to the cause.

The icing on the cake is when a person of Indian origin creeps up the ladder to be in the supreme political position in some other country. Oh boy! we simply go into a tizzy! Remember how we talked on and on about Kamala Harris, her Tamil and her dosas when she became the vice president of the US of A?

Switch on your television. All the channels are infatuated with the thought of a person of Indian origin becoming UK’s prime minister and putting the burden of our relations and trade on this new-found back. They are theorizing, discussing, opining, and deciding his role as an ‘Indian.’

Is he an Indian? 

Rishi Sunak’s name is very Indian. Just because the greenhorn PM has a darker shade of skin does not mean he is an Indian. If the information available is true, his parents came to the UK from East Africa and Mr. Sunak was born in Southampton, Hampshire in England. So realistically his motherland is not Bharat mata (Mother India) but England and Mata or Pita whatever parent he prefers to call it by.

He has said he follows Hinduism, and wants to light diyas (earthen lamps) in the hearts of the British. Greeting everyone on Diwali, he had tweeted:

I will do everything I can in this job to build a Britain where our children and our grandchildren can light the diyas and look to the future with hope.

I might not be very brilliant and wise but one thing I understand is that he was talking of his and the rest of the Brits’ progeny in the UK and not our Indian kids whose pre-teen years we blot off their lives, with our ambition that they become engineers and join a multinational company.

Besides, even if his name sounds like Hindustani classical music to the ears of our political parties, he surely did not have any of them in mind when in his speech he said, “It is the greatest privilege of my life to be able to serve the party I love and give back to the country I owe so much to.”

Then there are other celebrities too who practice Hinduism. Do you pin similar high hopes of the future for both Hinduism and India, from the likes of Julia Roberts, Elizabeth Gilbert, jazz musician Ravi Coltrane or NFL player Ricky Williams who are said to be practising Hindus?

Okay, he is a person of Indian origin alright, but let us be sensible- who cares about origin? We are told in school that man is the evolutionary form of a monkey, chimpanzee to be precise. Yet have you tried calling anyone, even lovingly, ‘chimpanzee’? Do it today and let me know the result, please.

Mr. Sunak took over the reins of the country he swore allegiance on Bhagwad Gita to, only this week. His position is like that of curdled milk, let him mature into a cheese and then maybe we can decide on whether to push our expectations of him as an ‘Indian.’

I know the warning, ‘baap pe mat jana.’ (Do not bring my family into something.) But he is the prime minister, the topmost executive of one of the permanent members of the United Nations, and therefore, open to public scrutiny. So, to those who would want to remind me that he is the son-in-law of N R Narayan Murthy, the owner of Infosys, please note that sasur is not always a respectful term; it can be used as an epithet to insult somebody.

His wife Akshata Murty, i.e., Mrs. Rishi Sunak, thanks to her stake in her dad’s firm, is one of the wealthiest women in Britain. For her husband’s sake though I would wish that she stays with him forever, because in case he loses his job like his predecessors, he has some support.

Just an aside! In an interview when his father-in-law, Mr Narayan Murthy, was asked,

“After your graduation did the need to achieve financial stability ever inhibit you from taking a risk and establishing Softronics and Infosys?

His wife Sudha Murty, an eminent writer and computer engineer herself, had quipped, “He had a working wife, that was not a problem.”

https://youtu.be/71DxF-IY118

Fingers crossed, he stays in the position and the United Kingdom government does not have to put up a recruitment ad for prime minister within a few weeks.

The only emotion all of us should nurture is empathy for the people there. For a couple of centuries, angrez (the English) ruled several countries in the world. In fact, according to statistics, more than 65 countries owe their Independence Day to England.

This is neither about karma nor about Luke 6:31 – “And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.”

I am saying that probably having gotten sick of the top people playing the game of musical chairs, they finally did what the US firms have been doing all along to achieve success, outsource the post to somebody with an Indian name.

The only redeeming factor is Mr. Sunak is reported to be fond of cricket. What if we give him the post of our cricket board president and for once end all drama connected with this issue? 

But then, he is also a horse racing enthusiast, says Wikipedia; my worry is who knows for how long he would continue winning the bets!

So let us forget looking into the house of a neighbour several blocks away and go back to our own dull lives, please. Don’t we still have the work of deciding whom to elect to lead us in several states and union territories and of course our own head of executive in the next couple of years?

                                                                                                  -Anupama S Mani