Syed Khalique Ahmed
NEW DELHI—Indian media went gaga over the appointment of 42-year-old Rishi Sunak, a practicing Hindu of Indian origin, as United Kingdom’s Prime Minister. For the first time in UK history, a non-Christian, who is also a non-White, has taken over the reign of prime ministership. While TV channels carried long sessions on his becoming UK PM, newspapers and digital media carried long articles on Rishi’s Indian and Hindu heritage.
It is undoubtedly a matter of pride for Indians worldwide that a person of Indian origin has occupied the top post in England, which once ruled over India. While the British occupied and ruled over India for over 200 years using sheer military force, Rishi is the son of an Indian migrant and became a UK citizen by birth in England. He rose to a high position in the Conservative Party through his political activities. Even though he is a non-White, the White-dominated Conservative leaders supported his candidacy for PM thrice, and he succeeded in becoming the PM of a country with the sixth-largest economy in the world based on the gross domestic product (GDP).
Rishi never hides his Hindu identity. He claims himself a practicing Hindu, a teetotaller and a vegetarian. Vegetarianism is considered a virtue and piety in present-day Hinduism. However, the followers of the Vedic religion during ancient times and even till a few hundred years ago were non-vegetarian. He also wears a red and yellow thread called Kalava around his wrist. Hindus consider Kalava a kind of protection from enemies. The Kalava on his wrist was quite visible in pictures when he met King Charles III at Buckingham Palace.
Rishi did not hide his religious identity when he was earlier appointed the country’s finance minister under the prime ministership of Theresa May in 2017. He took oath as a minister on Bhagwat Gita, showing that he is a devout Hindu. No one from his party or other political parties questioned him.
Before placing his hands on Bhagwat Gita, Rishi announced that he is a citizen of Britain. “But my religion is Hindu. My religious and cultural heritage is Indian. So I proudly say that I am a Hindu, and my identity is also a Hindu,” Rishi said in his short speech.
By his own admission, his “matrubhumi”(motherland) is Britain, where he was born but his “pitrabhumi” or the land of his ancestors, and “punyabhumi” (holy land) is in India. Based on the definition of “pitrabhumi” and “Punyabhumi”, Savarkar considered the greatest of leaders by RSS and BJP, had categorized Muslims and Christians as second-class citizens with no political rights to them simply because their “punyabhumi” or religious or holy places are outside the geographical boundaries of India. Therefore, based on Savarkar’s thesis, Rishi should not have been appointed PM of Britain. But liberal political thoughts of political parties in the UK must be appreciated because none objected to his appointment as the country’s top executive because of his Indian or Hindu heritage and his holy land being in India.
Contrast this to the narrow thoughts of our political party leaders. When Congress planned to install Sonia Gandhi, a Christian of Italian origin but an Indian citizen, as PM after her party’s landslide victories in 2004 and 2009, top leaders from different political parties, particularly the BJP, openly opposed her claim to be India’s PM. Late BJP leader Sushma Swaraj publicly stated that she would shave off her head, wear a white saree, sleep on the floor, and eat only gram for the rest of her life like a Hindu widow lives if Sonia is appointed country’s PM. She said she would resign from membership of Lok Sabha because she could not bear the “ignominy” of calling Sonia “Madam Prime Minister”. Her party colleague and former MP chief minister Uma Bharati said she could go to any length to prevent Sonia from becoming prime minister. She appealed to all political leaders, including those from Congress, to ensure that Sonia did not become PM. Even Mulayam Singh Yadav, a socialist leader, and a Congress political ally, strongly opposed Sonia’s candidacy for PM. Yadav’s opposition to Sonia brought him closure to BJP because of his political ideologies identical to BJP on Sonia’s issue. The chief reason for their opposition to Sonia was her European and Italian heritage and her holy land outside India. However, she became an Indian citizen after marrying Rajiv Gandhi and spent her entire life in India. Former Congress leaders Sharad Pawar and PA Sangma had also opposed her PM candidacy in 1999 because of her foreign origin.
Leaders from across the Indian political spectrum need to get out of their narrow mental ghettoes and must accommodate merit and talent even if an Indian citizen is of foreign origin. We must take a lesson from the UK, where the White-dominated Conservative Party preferred Rishi Sunak, of Indian origin, to become PM because they believed that he could bring Britain out of the economic crisis it is facing now. In fact, Britain is facing the worst economic crisis in history since World War II.
For the first time in Indian history, the central government of BJP led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is without a Muslim minister. Muslims account for about 15 percent of India’s total population, and it is unfortunate that such a large community has been kept out of the government in a country that claims to be the biggest democracy in the world. The lone Muslim minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi in the Modi cabinet resigned in July this year because of the end of his Rajya Sabha term. Had BJP and PM Modi wanted to continue Muslim representation in the government, Naqvi could have been nominated to the Upper House again. Could PM Modi and his party leaders take a lesson from their counterparts in the UK where they did not consider the cultural and religious ancestry of Rishi Sunak?
Muslim women of Indian origin as Singapore president
While our media was incredibly excited over the appointment of Rishi because of his Indian ancestry, the same media blacked out when a Muslim woman having Indian origin – Haleema Yacoob – became president of Singapore in 2017. Haleema, born of an Indian father and a Malaysian mother, still continues as the eighth President of Singapore.
As the world is becoming a global village and people frequently migrate from one place to another, many aspire to become leaders and heads of state. Many countries in the world have appointed persons of Indian origin (PIOs), like Canada, as ministers in the government, without considering their religion and ancestry. But politics in India seems to have become wholly based on religion, which works against the aspirations of minority communities. Will PM Modi do something to end the domination of religion from Indian politics and give preference to merit and talent in the appointment of ministers and ensure fair representation to all communities, including Muslims and Christians whose holy land is outside the geographical boundaries of India?
