The world is now focused on Rishi Sunak, a 42-year-old man of Indian descent who is currently a leading candidate for the position of UK prime minister. His ancestry, political ascent, and fortune have piqued interest among Indians as well as British people.Rishi Sunak has gained further attention as a result of claims that Boris Johnson’s downfall was caused by his departure as British Chancellor of the Exchequer.
After his Conservative Party colleagues strongly supported him with 137 votes in the final round on Wednesday, he is now the closest anybody of Indian heritage has ever come to taking office as British Prime Minister. The former Chancellor is not guaranteed a similarly smooth ride because he must compete with a considerably more difficult electorate of the Tory membership base that has recently shown favouritism for his competitor, Liz Truss, in polls.
There is still time for the MPs’ favourite to attempt to duplicate that outcome at the conclusion of postal voting on September 5, though, as another head-to-head televised debate between the final two candidates is set on the BBC for Monday and a series of hustings will be held around the UK.
Sunak, a devoted Hindu who attends the Southampton temple where he was born on a daily basis, made history in November 2020 when he lit the first Diwali diya outside his apartment at 11 Downing Street. His daughters Krishna and Anoushka, who are both deeply immersed in Indian culture, recently told him about how Anoushka and her classmates performed Kuchipudi during the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee festivities at Westminster Abbey last month.
Since the beginning of his campaign, when he told the tale of his Indian family’s 1960s emigration from East Africa, he has made an effort to find a balance between the personal and the professional.
Rishi was born in Southampton in 1980 and went to Winchester College, a prominent elite school. He worked part-time as a waiter at Southampton Curry House over the summer. Later, he went to Oxford University to study politics, philosophy, and economics.
While completing his MBA at Stanford University in the US on a Fulbright scholarship, Sunak met his future wife, Akshata Murthy, a millionaire heiress. Akshata is the daughter of Narayana Murthy, the CEO of the IT services behemoth Infosys. Two of Rishi and Akshata’s daughters.
From 2001 through 2004, Rishi was employed by Goldman Sachs as an analyst. According to a UK government website, he eventually went on to become a partner in two hedge funds, where he used his skills to aid the expansion of small and innovative British businesses.
After serving as a Conservative MP for Richmond in Yorkshire since 2015, he was appointed as a junior minister in Theresa May’s administration. Johnson appointed him chief secretary to the Treasury in 2019 and gave him a promotion to chancellor in February 2020.
Rishi resigned this month despite always being an outspoken backer of Johnson’s ideas, claiming that his own method of handling the economy was “fundamentally” different from that of the PM.
Additionally, Rishi has openly identified as a “proud Hindu.” He has claimed that, despite referring to himself as “thoroughly British,” his religious and cultural ancestry is “Indian,” just like that of his wife, and that “he is upfront about being a Hindu.”
(With inputs from agencies)
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