As Liz Truss, the former prime minister of the UK resigned after she faced growing pressure from conservative MPs, re-elections were held in the UK for the post of prime minister. Rishi Sunak was the leading contestant in the same and now it’s confirmed that he will be the next prime minister of the UK. He will be the third prime minister of the UK. Rishi Sunak is 42 years old, Southampton-born, UK’s first prime minister of Indian descent. Sunak’s grandparents hailed from Punjab state before the subcontinent was divided into two countries, India and Pakistan after British rule ended in 1947. Rishi Sunak's father was a National Health Service general practitioner and his mother was a pharmacist. His family migrated to Britain in the early 1960s, a period when several families from Britain former’s colonies moved to the country to rebuild it after the second world war prior to which his family used to reside in eastern Africa. Rishi attended an exclusive private school Winchester College. Then he attended Oxford University where he studied Economics, Philosophy and Politics and later he got his MBA from Stanford University. It was there where he met his wife Akshata Murthi whose father is an Indian billionaire Narayan Murthi who is the co-founder of an I.T. services giant Infosys. Infosys is the second-largest Indian I.T. company.
Before he
entered into politics, he worked as an analyst at Goldman Sachs and Hedge Funds. He is
believed to be the richest Member of Parliament, and his wealth and private school
background have been ground a conversation during various TV debates. Sunak was
appointed in the parliament in the year 2015 and soon had a swift rise in the Conservative
party as he supported calls for ‘Brexit’. Rishi was also among Johnson’s supporters during
his ‘leave EU’ campaign back then. In 2019, he was declared the Finance Minister
(Chancellor of the Exchequer) by Boris Johnson soon after which COVID-19 hit the entire
world and affected the economy of several nations severely. While some believe him to be
“out-of-touch” due to his foreign background as well as the luxurious life he is a part of,
some people in the UK are expecting that Sunak will bring some relief to the current
economic conditions of the UK. Rishi’s election, and that of Barack Obama back in 2008 for
US presidential candidature, is proof that in several democratic western countries race is no
longer a deciding factor for talented individuals to rise to the very top in politics.
Here, I have
described two points, the first covering why and how Rishi gained so much popularity in the
UK and the second discussing his controversies:
As a finance minister in the UK, he started the “Eat out to Help out” initiative to boost the struggling hospitality sector during the pandemic. In the campaign, the restaurants offered 50% off on meals for the first three days of the week, up to a maximum of 10 pounds ($13) - with the government making up the difference to the restaurant owners. It was so popular that more than 64 million meals were eaten during the scheme. He also started the Furlough scheme during the COVID-19 period (The scheme which pays 80 per cent of employees' wages for the hours they cannot work during the pandemic) to help the people of the UK survive the pandemic. Thus, Rishi gained popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic for his economic package which he declared to support employees and businesses which comprised of jobs retention programmes, which averted mass unemployment in the UK. His recent speech, claiming Stability and Unity in the UK has also pulled a lot of voters for him as people see him as a light of hope during these dark times in the UK.
Sunak’s fame took a massive hit after the ‘party gate’ scandal into public, where he was blamed for violating COVID-19 norms by organising lockdown parties at government offices. Sunak also faced a lot of criticism for his wealthy wife’s non- domiciled tax status. As per the rules, the tax status permits a person who is born in another country, to pay tax in the UK only for the income they earn there. It was later revealed that Akshata (Rishi's wife), who still holds Indian nationality, have non- domiciled status in the UK. This allowed Akshata to refrain from paying taxes from her overseas earnings from the shares she holds in Infosys (her father's company). Apart from that, he faced a major downfall, due to his biggest policy decision which is his opposition to not cutting taxes. More trouble came to him when reports suggested that Rishi had retained his US Green Cards even after he had returned to the UK.
Being an Indian, it makes me feel immensely proud that a person from our country is going to rule in one of the countries that hold profound value in the European continent, and what excites me more is that Rishi will be ruling a country that ruled us for about 200 years! I believe that this will for sure deepen our relations with the west and make Indians get the respect they deserve! It’s not about that we are not paid respect, but many times the western media is caught up in criticising Indian culture as well as lifestyle. Surely, this will change the way they depict as well as present Indians to the western world!
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