 Hello everyone. Welcome to another IR capsule for the Shankar IAS Academy. We have delayed discussing the appointment of the new British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak because of the Diwali holidays etc. But it was on the Deepavali Day itself that Rishi Sunak became the British Prime Minister. It was a historic event because he is characterized by the British as the first British Prime Minister of colour. That is the description that he has been given by the British press and officially. But he has been described in many other ways in different parts of the world. In India, we often refer to him as the first Indian origin Prime Minister of UK. Other places, they may call him the first Asian or first South Asian. Many people call him the richest Prime Minister ever in the history of the UK. So many definitions have been given to him. But none of it is complete because his background has been varied. His parents were in Africa from which they migrated. From India, they went to Africa and then they migrated to the UK. Sunak is a British citizen educated in Oxford and Stanford. He worked for companies and became a very rich person. He got elected in 2015 from Richmond in 2017 and 2019. Boris Johnson appointed him as the Finance Minister, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, which he performed very well. And then when Boris Johnson resigned, it was rumoured that he had a chance and he went through a long process of electioneering within several candidates and he emerged as the successful candidate among the British Conservative parliamentarians. But then when he went to the Conservative group as a whole, he lost to Liz Truss and he had warned her about the future policies. He had said that she should not give too many tax concessions before the financial situation had stabilized. But within 44 days, she managed to mess up things much more and there was a profound economic crisis. And at this stage, when she resigned, there was hardly anybody else who could take on the role of the Prime Minister. Still, Boris Johnson thought about it for a while but he could not get the number of supporters to even put forward the candidature. And so, Rishi Sunak became the Prime Minister not because he is coloured, not because he is of Indian origin, not because he is of Asian origin, so many descriptions. But actually, he became Prime Minister by sheer dint of merit. At that particular time in history, there was no one else visible in the horizon who could take over UK and succeed in recovering from the profound economic crisis it had gone into. So, this was the right man at the right time, at the right place. And there was really no challenge because nobody else had the experience or the expertise to handle the situation. So, it was his merit, his background, everything that resulted in becoming the British Prime Minister. And also, this is not the first time that a person of Indian origin reaches senior positions, leadership positions in other countries. There have been several places where Indians have become heads of state and Prime Ministers. So, even in Ireland, there is an Indian origin or because he is half Indian, half Irish Prime Minister. So, many places this has happened. We have noted them and we are proud of their achievements. But when it comes to UK or USA, we have this sense that we are conquering our conquerors because for many years, UK ruled over India. And the United States still dominates the world. So, when Kamala Harris became the vice president, there was the same excitement in India, even though she did not characterize herself as an Indian at any stage. She won the election basically as a Black leader, but then the Indians skipped in because they felt that Indian origin person would be of some help to India. And that has been a bit of a disillusionment because she has not seen any inclination to be a particularly friendly to India. And same should happen in the case of Rishi Sunak also. Everyone agrees that he will be a British Prime Minister, serving the interests of Britain and working very hard to rescue UK from all the problems that it had got into since Brexit, which he supported. And therefore, he became the Prime Minister as a result of the circumstances and he was considered the best possible bet for the UK because this is yet to be seen because first of all, he has to succeed in rescuing you because he has come as a kind of savior for the UK. So, it depends on how he is able to do that. People know that he has some formula, but it need not be a magic formula. And if he succeeds, the advantage will be that he can continue as Prime Minister for two more years and maybe lead the Tories, the Conservative party in the next elections and maybe win because at this point in time, the Conservative party was not in a position to go for elections because at the moment, according to the election ratings, Conservative party has only very low support. So, they had to carry on the mandate that received earlier to the Conservative party, which Boris Johnson had won. And as long as they can decide on another leader, they can continue without declaring a general election. So, his mission is twofold, one to rescue the British from the present economic crisis and secondly, to lead the Conservative party in the next elections. And so, these are both very difficult situations, but still he has become Prime Minister not by any election or voting or anything like that. But he was kind of made, he was, because there was no alternative to him. In India, naturally there is some jubilation and some people even think in terms of a kind of triumphalism that India is finally wreaking vengeance on UK for all it had done in India, colonialism and exploitation and atrocities and so on. So, they say, some people say that it's vengeance on the Battle of Klazzi, the Jallianwala Bagh or the partition of India, all the grievances now we have. And we say that we have one hour, so we have scored a point over the British. But this is just a sentiment. So, the real truth is that Western democracies are lands of opportunities and many people have succeeded in different areas, regardless of their race, colour, name, religion, etc. So, it was earlier it was the companies, you can look at several US and British companies, the head of which are of Indian origin. And so, it is simply that that has been now transferred, in fact, to the government and so from companies, leadership, of course, which are very, very significant. Now, the level of the expectation of Indians has risen, because here they for the first time, some of them have come to leadership positions in the countries, particularly in the UK as the pinnacle of power. So, what it proves is that the tolerance, the meritocracy that they have, and also the land of opportunities. So, that is what has been proved. And it should not be taken in the sense that India has won some kind of a battle. I am sure the Sunak will function as a classic British prime minister, taking the interests of the UK as their prime responsibility. Of course, it is true that he may have some sentimental connections, but at the same time, that may go against his being particularly friendly, because if he shows any kind of extra priority to India, that may go against him. In fact, he has done the opposite, because he has reinstated a Home Minister of Indian origin, who has been very critical of Indian migration. So, he could have excluded her this time, but he did not, because he felt that anything that he does to her would be misunderstood as a favour to India. So, he has become the prime minister because of the sheer dent of his merit. Over some people point out that his wife is Indian citizen, and they do a very famous family. Srinagar Narayana Murthy's daughter is his wife, so his connection with India is closer. It might be true, but her Indian citizenship has only gone against him, because people say that she has done this in order to save taxes, whatever may be the proof we do not know, but she is an Indian national. So, whether she got tax benefits or not is a matter of judgment. So, he will definitely be taking decisions in the best interests of the UK. It is true that when our Prime Minister greeted him, he made two points. One, that he will be a bridge between India and the UK. That is fair to be expected, but he did not say that would mean that we would expect any concessions from the UK, and many people have written and spoken towards the need for him to be a very strictly British Prime Minister. But he also mentioned the trade agreement which was being discussed, but was discontinued. Boris Johnson himself was willing to consider it, but with the Ukraine war and many other uncertainties, countries are unwilling to reach multilateral or bilateral agreements of seriousness at this point. People are postponing decisions, and therefore it looks that our trade agreement has also reached that category. The Prime Minister mentioned the trade agreement, not because Zanaki is the Prime Minister, but any Prime Minister has mentioned that. And I am sure it will be considered and it will be very thoroughly scrutinized by the Prime Minister before any discussion, any decision is taken. So, while we can be proud of his Indian descent, we should be treating him as a normal UK Prime Minister with some understanding of India, particularly since the present generation Indians married to him. Another interesting thing is that this has happened at a time when some of our people, some people in India have been very vociferous about British colonialism and its atrocities in India. Many speeches have been made and articles have been written, even a book has been written about the British atrocities in India. And this is by sheer accident that British and Indian origin has become Prime Minister at a time when this such a noise is being made about it. There is no purpose in this because traditionally, once independence is given to a country, normally there is no possibility of examining any kind of claims. This has happened in some other cases where judgments have been made that once a country has been granted freedom, whatever circumstances it may be, there will be no claims, etc. afterwards because that's settled for once and for all. Otherwise, there will be hundreds of thousands of cases where so many countries have become independent from the colonies and how who is going to settle all this. But here, this has been mentioned and compensation has been demanded. Apologies have been demanded. In fact, the Queen and the Prince went to Kalyanwala bag and placed their wreaths partly expressing regret over what happened. But we have been demanding compensation and also apologies. So, this will be very sensitive subject for Sunak because such an issue should not arise at this time and I'm sure he will try to avoid any reference to that. But since it has happened now, there could be more criticism and there would be more demand. But I'm sure he will not touch it and it will be also prudent for us not to raise it in order to create a problem between the two countries because it's not likely that any compensation will be paid. And by taking a case like that at a time when there is an Indian origin Prime Minister, it could be doubly dangerous, I think. So, that should be set aside and he will, this should not be pressed, these charges should not be pressed at this time. The other tendency in India is to take this as an example to show how Indian democracy is not genuine or adequate because it's being said that such a thing would not have happened in India. How would a recognized minority person reach the highest places in India? And this is something strange because that she seems someone is not aware of history. We have had many minority members of the minorities in India who have risen to very high positions, presidents, judges, chief ministers, so many people and there has not been any bar in our democracy for any kind of past or ancient. And of course, there may be considerations like that but they have reached the top for various reasons, including the prime minister because Dr. Manmohan Singh as a Sikh was a member of the minority. So, this kind of criticism that this shows some kind of superiority of Christian democracy over us, it is basically a political argument to criticize the present government, I suppose. But that's unfair because many people of minorities have risen to very high positions in India. So, then as far as the relationship between the UK and India are concerned, that will definitely improve but that is not going to be the first concern of the new prime minister. His concern is the status of UK after the Brexit, there have been several issues, particularly the major issue about Ireland, Northern Ireland and an independent Ireland, what will happen when there are two different kinds of customs regulations on these borders because one will be in the European Union, the other will not be in the European Union, so on. So, and also the deal with the European Union has not been finalized even though Brexit has taken place, there are many negotiations yet to take place on what are the final arrangements are. Of course, initially there was concern that Brexit will not succeed but as a champion of Brexit, I think Mr. Sunak will be trusted even more by the British when he takes any kind of decisions related to Brexit. But the pound has lost value, the prices have gone up and the inflation is very, very high and all these issues cannot be resolved in a day. Unlike Liz Truss, he has not rushed into a plan, he is taking more time to present a plan to the people of the UK and let us hope that he will have some magic formula which will bring the country out of this public and that will only justify his appointment. But there is hope and as Indians we should pray for his success not for the sake of India's interest but the sake of stability in Europe, particularly at this time when the war is raging and the winter is coming and the prices of oil have gone up, oil companies seem to be making massive profits against which some taxation is being imposed or at least talked about in some countries they have imposed it already. So there is complete chaos as far as the British economy is concerned. So that is his priority and therefore for him to succeed, I think we have to solve these problems and then it will justify his election but everybody knows that he is a brilliant person and to me what the lesson to be learnt is for a brilliant Indian to get recognition of the system, the liberal democracies Europe and elsewhere is a very good area plays for brilliant Indians to get recognition. That is a lesson we need to learn from big companies now Indians are present to high levels. In the old days Indian immigrants their biggest dream was of one of them should become a doctor but now it has gone beyond that and has reached the highest position and this will be a matter of pride for people of Indian origin and also a kind of inspiration. In the United States also it is not just Kamala Harris but also there are many in people of Indian origin who have been elected to the Congress and that is a major change that is taking place in the United States. So Ireland's Prime Minister is another so generally Indians are a good prospect in these free democracies and that is not exceptional for them. India too has got these kind of opportunities for people of minorities to come to high positions. So let's hope it will be a successful Prime Minister and he will also bring a good name to Indian immigrants in UK, USA and elsewhere. Thank you very much. This is exactly what I have been saying so and there are many people who make this point so there is a triumphalism as I said. We have answered the petition back but it should not be seen like that. It should be seen that liberal democracies have good opportunities for brilliant people and an opportunity presented itself and Mr. Sunak was the only person who could have been elected at that particular moment. Nobody can predict whether he will succeed or not. List was failed miserably but she approached it differently from what Sunak had originally proposed. She had warned her that taxation should not be reduced till the situation stabilizes. But on the other hand the situation has got worse because there is no respite to the Ukraine crisis and if it lasts longer, the longer it lasts, more serious it will be and so nobody can predict. But as I said repeatedly before, he was the only man of the moment. Nobody else could have been appointed because of the election process and the support he had and therefore they had no choice and they think it was a choice and let us hope he succeeds. Well that is not his first priority. Of course he will want to have good relations with India but even on the trade agreement I don't think he will rush. So it will be like any other Prime Minister, India and UK have a long tradition. Most of us consider UK as our mother country even though many people don't know what that country is and the long history of our relationship. Even after the British left, we remain in the common wealth as a kind of gesture for the British-Indian-British relationship. So the new common wealth is in fact a creation of India. Otherwise those who became totally independent left the common but we even after becoming a republic remained in the common wealth and therefore a new common wealth is created. Otherwise the common wealth would have ended with everyone turning to Republicans. So now even if countries like Australia or Canada etc are turned to become republic but they will still can remain in the common wealth and the link with the UK can be maintained. Of course common wealth itself really does not have an agenda because it is nothing but the UN agenda which they pursue. At one time common wealth had a logic because many of them were not independent like South Africa, Rhodesia etc. So now that that agenda is over what the common wealth is doing is simply copying some of the major issues in the United Nations like the climate change or immigration or various issues. Only one particular talent that common wealth is supposed to have is the future of a number of island states because many of the island states which were British colonies have become independent and they have enormous problems and will the UK take the responsibility to support them in their search for a solution to the climate change because some of them may even go under water very soon the way we are going and therefore that kind of a linkage may be there but that is a more global responsibility than a UK responsibility. So that is all that we can say as far as relations are concerned not at all. In fact UK and United States have had the best of relations throughout history of course they are also a former I mean the United States also was the former colony of the British and they have fought a war for independence but since then they have the closest of relations so that is not going to change I don't think Sunaik will be particularly more friendly to the US because he was educated in the US. He found his wife in the US has so many connections but it will not affect us our interests in the UK are not linked to UK interests in the United States and our relationship with the US also improving so there's no reason why we shouldn't go some game that is if UK is friendly with the United States they should not be should be unfriendly to us that argument does not work. So this is the tradition not really the tradition the practice in the UK that is one party is elected for a particular period the leaders can change but the party can continue but there was demand for immediate elections which is not mandatory and therefore they chose to elect a new leader than go for general elections. So that is in India for example we have also had changes of prime minister without elections but then finally a stage comes when nobody is able to function effectively and then the prime ministers themselves go for a general election as it happened in the case of Mr. Gujarat and Mr. Vajpayee and so on so general elections have been palled but that was possible in UK also but in the present context even the people may not have wanted an election in UK at this critical time so that was my guess. I would only say that there are several elements in this topic which will be of interest to the examiners whether it is in the the prelims you know many of these names might come up many of the reasons for the present crisis in UK will come up and also maybe in the main examination too a UK situation may figure so it'll be necessary for all of you to familiarize yourself with the details and have your own assessment by the time you write the exam. That's not India's relationship with the UK audience has nothing to do with the future of the UK. Well they do all the time their own presidents are criticized all the time and so it's a free country anybody can criticize anybody but government-to-government relationship will be excellent because it's the tradition and that will continue because particularly cooperation has become important they are members of a military alliance called AUKUS as you all know for Indian Ocean region so they have very very strong relationship they are members of NATO they're fighting the war together so all these are significant element and elements are some criticism or talking about his origins or his style or his English or his money or the part of his suit all this will happen that's normal but that'll have nothing to do with his performance but we never do that so we do not plan our foreign policy on the basis of one country or one situation so we are a diverse country and we choose sides as we like we have followed an online policy all through which does not rule out relations with any country and so it will not affect anyone we are taking a very independent position vis-à-vis Europe that is because of this particular situation and we are not willing to criticize Russia simply because they want us to do that because we have a we have talked about it very many times before and we have a traditional relationship and we need to maintain it at the same time we have not supported Russian aggression we have criticized it we have told them that this is not the era of war all this has been done so at the same time we have kept our options open if anybody is interested in India mediating or being together with other countries trying to resolve the issue I don't know that may be happening somewhere because we are acceptable to both Russian President has also been praising India recently which is not very good because he will give the impression that we are working together with him that's not true but he has been saying very many nice things and also talking about the future etc so that he will naturally do because he has that leverage there but we will certainly not subscribe to that view and we will have to eventually because of Russia China on one hand various things happening in the world we may eventually end up in the on the US side so and which will be UK side also but we are not rushing there we are obeying our options choosing our friends making use of the available facilities on oil trade as a crowd with Russia but that does not mean that we will be with any particular country or region we will exercise our autonomy strategic autonomy which is our policy no it's not a done deal it's been negotiated for a long time and the economic crisis will have a definitive impact and also as I said the the world situation the global politics is such that people do not rush into agreements at this time because things are not normal like the fortune being made by oil companies something very new this much of profits they have never made and the government has to intervene so these are all situations which will affect any trade agreement and therefore I don't think it is done it'll have to be maybe it'll have to wait some kind of settlement of the economic situation in UK before we can sign it no she did not become Prime Minister because of her origin but because she chose not to become Prime Minister if she had wanted to she could have maybe others may have advised her advised her to do this uh reports that people like President Abdul Kalam advised her against with etc we don't know these are just topics uh but whatever it is but we have accepted her as the President of the Congress Party for so many years so what's the change so that's something so if they are saying if anybody is saying that India is not liberal enough we are liberal enough enough to accept an Italian lady as our leader the leader of the Congress party even when Dr. Narmad Singh was a Prime Minister she exerted major influence on the government so that's also part of our own image and our own what shall we say liberal mind and uh and of course that she was married to Rajiv Gandhi was a member so she had the name about the attached to her name that also helped so in many ways she was accepted she was never rejected by us but we have been Prime Minister was some kind of a technical aspect I mean some people may have considered but she was an Indian citizen there was nothing would have prohibited her from becoming the Prime Minister but the Brexit is a done thing it's a done deal now nobody can go back on it that is very clear but what the terms would be that they would work out to deal with issues like Ireland and also issues like uh migration there's so many things which since they have been part of a unified group of countries when you become independent look at the situation most companies dealing with UK dealing with Europe were located in London and now all these companies have to establish another another office in in Brussels or somewhere else in Europe because they cannot operate entirely from UK so on the other hand there are benefits Indian origin people in the UK believe their chances have improved because the first priority to be given to EU members is disappeared so at least there was expectation that the Indian origin people will be better off with practice will accept of course it'll be in only we'll see it in practice but certainly it's it cannot be reversed now and what can be done is to get a good deal from the EU and that process will continue prices are no price yes there has been but but no referendum yet and we don't know what the results would be but this is true in many countries there are preferences you know affinities and Brexit has opened up this possibility of Scotland becoming free and so on but it all depends on the local politics and how it develops because there is a section of opinion which believes that Scotland could be an independent country and there may be some activities going on but not immediately particularly after the person's situation I think UK has to settle down and then you can have the luxury of talking about independence etc at the moment I did not think that anybody will venture to do that thank you