[HammerHead]

Originally Posted by Sk8r

I can only think of this!

Because that 'Monu' from Gudgaon looked beyond place of birth. He looked at the rituals the new PM of UK practiced or practices. And that's the reason 'Monu' feels he is an Indian

[CarNerd]

Originally Posted by RaghuVis

The latest bias in the last few years have been the term South Asian. I don't understand what they would lose by calling it specific to that country. Why can't western media use the term Indian in this context?

This is exactly why we lag behind the Europeans. We fight among ourselves! Some say he is not an Indian, some believe he is an Indian, some believe he is from Pakistan, some say he is from Africa, etc.

The fact is Rishi Sunak is a British citizen just like Ronaldo is a Portuguese citizen and Toyota is a Japanese Company. We should appreciate the fact that a young man like him has become the PM in such a short period of time and people in developed western nations have no problem in electing youngsters to lead them.

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by RunGaDa

Rishi Sunak was *announced* as Prime Minister. It’s only sensible to wait till the elections are over and not hurry into judging short terms.
There is surely lot of talk about “Non-Domicile” loophole to tax evasions.
It’s best not to get into stuff like faith/politics etc on this forum. My 2 cents.

For most of us here in India, what really matters is how easy or difficult will the UK visit visas become, to obtain. And how expensive will they become. Those guys there have made it abundantly clear that they are making hay while the sun shines, from hungry travellers from the sub continent, with their wicked ‘Tatkal’ ‘Queue Jump’ visa fees!

Incidentally, I heard from a pal yesterday, that in China, UK and US visa appointments are given in 2 days flat. The present appointment wait times in India are 2-3 months for UK visa. And 2 years plus, for US visa.

Will the advent of a Rishi Sunak in the Premiership make any positive difference at all (beyond the lip service cues) to actual relations between the two countries or not?

Rishi-bhai will have enough battles to fight for sure and there are any number of hecklers on the sidelines poking a stick at Akshata Akka and her alleged ‘tax evasions/ avoidance’ - am sure they’ll have the best tax brains on it and much luck to them. The moral aspect - we are all not God. Hence cannot and dont have any right to judge. (For that matter the 777 garage owners ideally ought to be the highest tax payers in India. But are they?)

The more existential and basic things will likely always remain the same. Like it or not, fundamentally, we aren't ‘White’, we don't ‘look like them’ and therefore we will never be wholly and fully accepted by everyone there as being ‘them’. And anyway why should we want to be ‘them’. Its better to be ‘us’.

The UK’s economic situation is a real mess from what I understand. Same with their NHS and many of their erstwhile first class public institutions. So Rishi has a lot of things to clean up.

In the words of Trevor Noah, Rishi may well serve into his mid forty two’s….because they will certainly have a general election sooner than later.

https://youtu.be/nip_CYnZzZs

[ajayc123]

Hear the BBC word cloud for him. Not a very kind one.
https://twitter.com/ginamartinuk/sta...jb4eji--xtaK2w

He must be damn smart to land up in this position in view of the underlying sentiments.

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by ajayc123

Hear the BBC word cloud for him. Not a very kind one.
https://twitter.com/ginamartinuk/sta...jb4eji--xtaK2w

Clearly shows the thinly veiled underlying sentiments. They just can’t stomach it. So all the ‘political correctness’ and stuff is mere lip service.

[fhdowntheline]

Quite frankly, I find all this hype in India about this new UK PM a classic case of "begaane ki shaadi mein abdullah deewana" . The same thing happened with Kamala Harris . Why should we in India care either way ? He is a UK citizen, his priorities will be towards the welfare of UK citizens. We have a competent MEA and his team to deal with that country. Just because someone lights up diyas doesnt endear him to the country of his ancestors.

[am1m]

If Mr. Sunak can survive as PM and manage to steer his country out of the economic situation it's in right now, then he most certainly deserves to be celebrated, irrespective of his origins or age.

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by am1m

I don't understand why we think Mr. Sunak is Indian or any more Indian than any other British PM (apart from the fact that he's married to an Indian). He was born in the UK, his parents were born in Africa.

Yes, he is no son of India. But he sure is the son-in-law of India... Unlike most emigrants, Akshata Murthy still retains her Indian passport.

Will he be friendly to India... probably not. He will have to go out of his way to prove that he is not being partial to India. His India policies will be scrutinized at microscopic level. That alone is a good reason not to have foreign leaders with some Indian connection. It doesn't help.

[Latheesh]

Originally Posted by fhdowntheline

Quite frankly, I find all this hype in India about this new UK PM .

We have a dedicated thread here, what more you want? Now some indian media will trackdown his great great grandfathers house, friends, family, jobs, hobbies etc. and make a series.

Here is a news headline today for example "Infosys, Backed by Rishi Sunak's Wife Akshata Murthy, Trades Ex-Dividend Today"

https://www.news18.com/news/business...s-6250435.html

[dragracer567]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Yes, he is no son of India. But he sure is the son-in-law of India... Unlike most emigrants, Akshata Murthy still retains her Indian passport.

Will he be friendly to India... probably not. He will have to go out of his way to prove that he is not being partial to India. His India policies will be scrutinized at microscopic level. That alone is a good reason not to have foreign leaders with some Indian connection. It doesn't help.

Spot on.

Something similar happened with the Obama presidency. People expected US-Kenya/Africa relations to improve but relationship generally suffered.

[DicKy]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Will he be friendly to India... probably not. He will have to go out of his way to prove that he is not being partial to India. His India policies will be scrutinized at microscopic level. That alone is a good reason not to have foreign leaders with some Indian connection. It doesn't help.

True. There are a number of Indian origin American politicians/ civil servants/ judges who go out of their way to show that they are not partial to Indians and are as American as they get., with Indian Americans or Indian citizens getting the short end of the stick as a result.

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by Samurai

But he sure is the son-in-law of India... Unlike most emigrants, Akshata Murthy still retains her Indian passport.

That's probably more to do with the benefit of claiming to be non-domiciled and get the cool benefits of avoiding 20Mn pounds of tax much more than anything else. Even if we account for double-tax treaty based reduction, it's still a cool figure.

Will he be friendly to India... probably not. He will have to go out of his way to prove that he is not being partial to India.

+1.

But considering one of the "solutions" of Brexit was to focus on trade deals with non-EU countries, he could potentially push for more aggressive trade & customs agreements with India. Currently Australia is the only country with whom the UK has been successful on that aspect. Time will tell. But he's going to be under a lot of scrutiny for sure either way.

[deetee]

Talk about hypocrisy! Democratic India can't accept Sonia Gandhi as PM because of her Italian origins, but we celebrate an Indian descent becoming PM elsewhere.

[denzdm]

I read this article today on moneycontrol pro. Most of us might not have access to it. Its a very meaningful insight.

https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/op...e-9396381.html

Pasting some thoughtful ones.

"But the fact is that Sunak is hardly Indian except for the colour of his skin. His parents migrated to Britain before he was born and he was educated in some of the finest educational institutions in the UK and US. It is this that gave him the cutting edge.

----- there is a lesson in this for parties that practise majoritarianism. First Kamala Harris and now Rishi Sunak, the people of the US and UK have embraced the non-majority citizens of their countries and elected them to high office.

---- youngster in the US strives hard to excel because he knows he can one day become the president, even a youngster of colour in Britain now knows he can one day come to hold the highest office in the land."

[binand]

Originally Posted by deetee

Talk about hypocrisy! Democratic India can't accept Sonia Gandhi as PM because of her Italian origins, but we celebrate an Indian descent becoming PM elsewhere.

This I think is a false equivalence. Sunak was born a UK citizen, Sonia Gandhi acquired her Indian citizenship by registration.

And it is not as if all of India is celebrating Sunak's elevation - I doubt except a few vocal ones on social media for most of the rest it is BAU.

In my opinion, the events in British politics over the past few years only proves that their politicians are in no way different from ours in the important attributes that matter. How can anyone forget Sunak's campaign speech in which he boasted he was successful in diverting public expenditure from deserving areas to richer localities?