The finance minister of Britain, Rishi Sunak, is all set to shift to the 10 Downing Street to become Britain’s first Hindu prime minister, if in case Boris Johnson is forced out.
To command the world’s fifth largest economy, coming from the descendants of immigrants from Britain’s old empire in India and East Africa would be a historic feat.
Since he took over as chancellor of the exchequer ago at the beginning of the Covid pandemic, two years ago he has promoted a carefully curated image on social media.
A detail-oriented policy wonk, is well known in India due to her wife, Akshata, who is the daughter of Indian tycoon Narayan Murthy. Narayan Murthy is the billionaire co-founder of information-technology group Infosys.
On February 13, 2020, Sunak was named as Britain’s first Hindu chancellor and swore his oath of allegiance as an MP on the Bhagavad Gita.
While urging other Hindus to stick to England’s then Covid lockdown, he marked the Hindu festival of Diwali by lighting oil lamps on the front step of his official residence at 11 Downing Street.
It was the same evening when Johnson and his partner Carrie were partying with friends to celebrate the downfall of his then-chief advisor Dominic Cummings and violating the lockdown norms.
Sunak, on the contrary is a teetotaller, admits only to a fondness for Coca-Cola and sugary confectionaries.
Rise Of Sunak
The British public was barely aware of Sunak when Johnson made him chancellor, after only five years in Conservative politics. Covid-19 was then spreading, but not yet grounds for panic.
A month later, Sunak was handed over the responsibility to craft a massive financial rescue package to safeguard millions of jobs, when Boris ordered the first nationwide lockdown.
But while UK unemployment is now falling, Britons under Sunak’s watch are also facing a cost-of-living squeeze with inflation accelerating at the fastest pace in decades.
Sunak has earned applause from the Tory backbenchers when he insisted that it must not be the future generation which must bear the brunt of the bill and pay the price. This is contrary to Johnson, who seemed a bit extravagant.
Sunak is also the first person born in the 1980s to hold one of the so-called four great offices of state: prime minister, chancellor, foreign secretary and home secretary.
Sunak has been described as an “exceptional individual” from William Hague, whose member of parliament seat Sunak took in 2015. He became the member of parliament for Richmond in Yorkshire, northern England.
Theresa May gave the Brexit supporter his first job in government in January 2018, making him a junior minister for local government, parks and troubled families.
Humble Beginnings
Sunak’s grandparents were from the Punjab in northern India and emigrated to Britain from eastern Africa in the 1960’s.
They came with “very little”, Sunak told MPs in his first speech in 2015.
Sunak’s father was a family doctor in Southampton on the south coast of England, and his mother ran a local pharmacy.
Born on May 12, 1980 in Southampton, he attended Winchester College, one of Britain’s leading private schools, where he was the principal.
After waiting at tables in a local Indian restaurant, Sunak studied at Oxford University, graduating with a degree in philosophy, politics, and economics.
In 2006, Sunak graduated with a master’s degree in business administration from Stanford University in California, with a Fulbright scholarship.
He met Akshata in Stanford and settled in California and then returned to Britain, where he worked for Goldman Sachs financially before making millions of hedge funds.
The Sunak have two young daughters – and a photo dog – and the minister’s profile for Instagram has earned him the nickname “Dishy Rishi”.
But if Conservative MPs get tired of Johnson, Sunak’s previous investments and lack of experience will be seen.
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