How does Rishi Sunak becoming PM in Britain mean for India? Prof Anand Kumar replied

New Delhi: Indian-origin Rishi Sunak took over as the British Prime Minister on Tuesday. Sunak, 42, is also Britain’s first Hindu prime minister. There has been a debate in India about this that Britain has given a minority a chance to become the Prime Minister and being the world’s largest democracy, India also needs to learn from it. Five questions and answers from the famous socialist thinker Professor Anand Kumar on all these issues:-

Question: The British who kept us Indians as slaves for a long time, their country has become the Prime Minister of the UK, Rishi Sunak of Indian origin. your opinion?
answer: Indians need not be very happy with this development, but it proves that political equality is the demand of democracy. Otherwise, in a country of 82 per cent whites, a man between six per cent of Indians could not become the prime minister. This situation will not be acceptable in our country because we have majoritarianism going on. Here such a person becomes our leader who is not only of our religion but also of our language. Sunak becoming British Prime Minister is a setback for those who support such decisions as the world is not going where the majority of Indians were thinking. The great thing is that a person of Indian origin should be elected leader from the British Conservative Party, for this is not the least thing for Indians to be happy about. Because the British Conservative Party has been broadly speaking in favor of the middle and upper middle classes. She has always been very strict about migrants. If the Conservative Party had run, Sunak would not have been able to become a citizen of Britain, let alone being the Prime Minister.

Question: Do democratic countries of the world need to learn from this development?
answer: This is visible because of the old democracy in Britain. Here the judiciary, executive and legislature really have mutual autonomy. That is why after Sunak became the Prime Minister, there is no hustle and bustle in the army, nor is there any disturbance in the Prime Minister’s Office there. We need to learn this thing that we should not impose our insistence on the legislature, judiciary and executive. This situation calls for reforms in Indian conduct.

Question: There is a debate in India regarding this. One section is feeling proud by mentioning sage Sunak being a Hindu while another section is saying that India needs to take a lesson from it. What will you say?
answer: Here it is written in our constitution itself that once you become a citizen of India, then your citizenship becomes above the restrictions of religion, caste and language. We have to take care of it. We have made some progress in this regard. Because we accepted a non-Hindi speaking Deve Gowda (HD Deve Gowda) as the Prime Minister. There was no protest procession against him in Delhi or in Banaras or in Lucknow or Patna that the Prime Minister of India should be Hindi speaking. As far as religion is concerned, India accepted a Sikh as prime minister for 10 years. He was Punjabi speaking and was a minority. Despite this, his rule was not anti-Hindu. Nor did he show excessive inclination towards the Sikhs. This is because after reaching this constitutional position, most people find the constitution more sacred, rather than language or their religion. Today’s situation is an exception.

Question: India is the world’s largest democracy but there is not a single Muslim minister in the government and there is not a single Muslim MP in the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), while the population of this community in India is about 20 percent?
answer: They want to leave this side of India’s second largest population and that too because of Aurangzeb or Babur. Because he has not understood the change of 300 years of history. The needle of his mind is stuck somewhere in the time of Babur or Aurangzeb. This is not good for them nor is it good for the country. You have to understand that America also gave the right to vote to black people. France today does not see any threat to black people of Algerian origin. It also has to be understood that in the countries of the world, right wing forces are getting defeated again and again in elections. Now we should move towards such an inclusive nationality, which should not hesitate to confer Bharat Ratna to Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan and should not feel nervous about making Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam the President.

Question: Meaning, you say that India should be inclusive enough like Britain to accept a minority as its prime minister?
answer: Today, the ruling party or rather the ruling group should keep in mind the map of the whole of India. The country should not be seen through the prism of religion. When this happens you will get the answer to this question.