Britain, and Elsewhere, All Abuzz About Rishi Sunak

For the French newspaper Le Figaro, Britain’s next prime minister, Rishi Sunak, is “the man who puts a little India in Downing Street.” For the Times of India, it is more than just a little: “Rishi Sunak, a ‘proud Hindu’, is new UK Prime Minister.” The Indian newspaper lists five things to know about Mr. Sunak, including that the 42-year-old “will create history by becoming the first person of Indian heritage and the first person of Hindu faith to lead Britain.” It reminded readers that when he became a member of parliament in 2015, Mr. Sunak swore his oath of allegiance on the Bhagavad Gita, the holy Hindu scripture.The Times of India also registered with satisfaction that Mr. Sunak’s win, a quick reversal of fortune after the outgoing premier had edged him out just in September, came during the five-day Hindu festival of Diwali, which started on Saturday. The calendar coincidence is likely not lost on Mr. Sunak himself. Last summer, when he was serving as chancellor of the exchequer, Mr. Sunak told The times of London that the ceremony of lighting diya lamps on the steps of 11 Downing Street, the address of the chancellor’s office, was one of the career highlights of which he was most proud: “It had a deep meaning for a lot of people and it was an incredible thing in our country,” he said. Some newspapers focused less on Mr. Sunak’s ethnic background and more on his bank account: “Rishi Sunak, a Millionaire on Downing Street,” ran a headline in Italy’s La Stampa. Mr. Sunak is indeed very rich. The Guardian reports that he and his wife, Akshata Murty, “are sitting on a combined fortune of about $822 million — roughly double the estimated $338-$395 million wealth of King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort.” For the first time in history, the occupants of 10 Downing Street will be richer than the monarch in Buckingham Palace, the Guardian report says.The Indian press, from the Times of India to the Hindustan Times and others, are reporting extensively on the life of Ms. Murthy, the daughter of an Indian billionaire who founded Infosys, N.R. Narayana Murthy. She and Mr. Sunak met while both were studying at Stanford University, and among their multiple properties is a penthouse apartment in Santa Monica, California. Mr. Sunak’s origins are more humble. His grandfathers were both born in the Punjab province of what was British India and emigrated to Britain from East Africa in the 1960s with “very little,” as Mr. Sunak said in his first speech as an MP. A Russian daily, Komsomolskaya Pravda, asked hopefully, “will the kingdom abandon its anti-Russian course” now that Rishi Sunak is premier?London’s influential Spectator proffered six reasons “to be optimistic about a Rishi Sunak premiership,” and the first is about the very thing that catapulted him to 10 Downing Street: the economy. “At a time when market-literacy is at a premium, we’ll have the most market-literate PM in history,” the magazine said, adding that “Sunak has a clearer grasp of finance than anyone to sit in No. 10” and, almost plangently, “We need that right now.”Overall, the British press, unlike many European newspapers and some American ones such as the New York Times, are far more focused on Mr. Sunak’s lightning rise to the United Kingdom’s top political job following the surprise resignation of Liz Truss last week, and the challenges he now faces, than either his religion or race. That prioritization is very much in keeping with the cosmopolitan spirit of contemporary Britain, in contrast to many of its Continental cousins. Worth noting, too, is that Londoners elected their long-serving mayor, Sadiq Khan, a Muslim of British Indian heritage, in 2016. An article in the Spectator does aver that Mr. Sunak will be “the first non-white leader in Britain,” but in the same sentence adds that “it won’t be an Obama moment because Britain is not obsessed about race, which is one of the best things about this country.”

Britain, and Elsewhere, All Abuzz About Rishi Sunak

More from the New York Sun

Let Some Oil Tankers Sail Through the Strait of Hormuz — World Oil Prices Will Retreat Big Time

‘What Is Chabad Exactly?’

On Taxes in New York, It’s Mamdani v. Hochul

More from the New York Sun

Let Some Oil Tankers Sail Through the Strait of Hormuz — World Oil Prices Will Retreat Big Time

‘What Is Chabad Exactly?’

On Taxes in New York, It’s Mamdani v. Hochul

‘Hoppers’ is the Best Pixar Film of the Decade

Florida Senate Advances Bill To Let State Leaders Designate Groups as Terrorists After Federal Judge Blocks Effort by DeSantis

One Week In, Will Trump and Netanyahu Have Time To Finish Reshaping the Mideast and the World?

State Department Says Charter Flights Are Evacuating Hundreds of Americans Stranded in Middle East

Mayor Mamdani’s Wife Liked Posts Cheering on Hamas’s October 7 Massacre: Report