GG News Bureau
London, 7th September. When an Indian-origin person is in charge of a particular country’s Indian community, it grows and prospers. This is also how India’s soft power grows. This is a widely held belief. Is this true? The short answer is no, not always. This is all identity politics, which results in the consolidation of migrant voters in favor of a specific party that projects a specific candidate with a ‘specific’ identity. This was very clear in the case of Kamala Harris. Her election was celebrated because of her Indian heritage. The same Harris-Biden administration, however, passed a pro-Pakistan resolution on Kashmir. Even so, in the case of Rishi Sunak, people fail to recognize this.
Indian-origin Rishi Sunak is defeated
Rishi Sunak has lost the election to become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, receiving 21,000 fewer votes than Liz Truss, the former Secretary of State under Boris Johnson. Sunak could only gain the trust of 42.6% of the members, whereas Truss received overwhelming support from 57.4% of the members.
A country’s policies evolve in tandem with its leaders. However, this is not the case in the case of the United Kingdom. With India, not much will change because Truss has an excellent working relationship with Indian Cabinet Ministers, and we can hope that an FTA with India will be finalized before Diwali.
Rishi Sunak’s resignation triggered a series of exits from the UK government, eventually leading to Boris Johnson’s resignation. The Indian community was overjoyed that an Indian would be governing India’s former coloniser, Britain. The general feeling was, ‘An Indian to take over Britain in only 75 years of independence.’ So, given that we have already surpassed the United Kingdom to become the world’s fifth largest economy, what purpose would Sunak’s election serve?
Indians are disappointed and upset as a result of Sunak’s defeat. Sunak’s Indian ancestry had aided him in gaining a lot of attention. It was also widely reported that Rishi Sunak’s death would be blamed on racism in the UK, which would bring a bad name to the country. And this exposes our Indian hypocrisy.
Indians should remember Sonia Gandhi
Sonia Gandhi rose to prominence as a Prime Ministerial candidate in 1991. However, with the exception of a few Congress bootlickers, no one wanted Sonia Gandhi to be the state head, owing to her Italian heritage. She faced severe criticism, and Manmohan Singh was sworn in as Prime Minister in 2004. It was widely assumed that a woman who was not born on Indian soil and was not raised in Indian society could never understand the problems and hardships of a common Indian, even if she married into one of India’s most prominent families.
Rishi Sunak may face the same fate as Sonia Gandhi, who was rejected by Indians for being an outsider. However, in Sunak’s case, the conservative party choose its leader, and there was no public mandate. Even if the British reject Sunak, this should not be regarded as a problem.
There were many other controversies with him
Laundering of taxes
Unfortunately, Sunak’s wife Akshata Murthy, the daughter of Indian billionaire and Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy, has been a major thorn in his election campaign.
Rishi was forced to explain how he managed his family’s fortune, which is said to be worth $840 million and has earned him the title of the UK’s richest MP. The majority of Sunak’s fortune stems from his marriage to Akshata, who owns a 0.93% stake in Infosys worth $794 million.
Reports that Akshata is wealthier than British Queen Elizabeth II, with assets worth $495 million, according to the Sunday Times, did not go down well with the general public.
Furthermore, Akshata was able to save millions of pounds in tax on dividends received from her family’s IT Company.
She received a dividend payment of 11.6 million pounds ($15.1 million) last year because she owns about 0.9% of Indian IT giant Infosys.
Akshata agreed to pay more taxes on foreign income after the issue erupted into a major controversy. However, the damage had already been done.
Sunak’s tax breaks
Sunak’s opposition to not cutting taxes was one of the most significant policy decisions that shifted the tide in Truss’ favor.
Truss, on the other hand, believes that tax cuts will result in increased spending and tax revenues, thereby rescuing the economy.
While economists have not endorsed Truss’ populist measure of immediate tax cuts, it has increased her popularity among the conservative vote base.
Truss began to pull away from Sunak in the race at this point. Sensing that the margin was widening, Sunak and his team made a U-turn and announced that if elected, he would cut basic income tax rates by 20% by 2029.
Sunak stated that his immediate goal was to combat inflation. However, once that is accomplished, his government will cut one pence from income taxes in 2024, as promised during his tenure as chancellor. Then, in 2029, another three pence will be removed from income taxes.
Sunak also promised to eliminate VAT on energy bills after months of vehement opposition.
His green card tussle
While the Akshata Murthy tax-laundering scandal was still fresh in Sunak’s mind, reports emerged claiming that the Sunaks had kept their US green cards even after returning to Britain.
Top Conservative Party members shattered his chances of becoming Prime Minister by questioning his commitment to the UK.
“Sunak has demonstrated colossal naivety, and the way he has arranged his affairs suggests that he is not even committed to the UK, but that he is keeping open the option of a career in finance in the United States,” a senior Tory leader told The Observer. Sunak only confirmed he gave up his “green card” for the United States after becoming Britain’s Finance Minister after much public and media pressure.
While Sunak’s approach of focusing on fighting soaring inflation and using targeted measures to help those in need did resonate with audiences at nearly a dozen party hustling, it clearly wasn’t enough to tip the scales in his favor.
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