The Empire tried to strike back but got struck in the back instead at the G20 summit in New Delhi. In the 1940s, as India’s freedom struggle raged, Winston Churchill warned, “If Independence is granted to India, power will go to… men of straw.” Churchill would be spinning in the grave after UK’s Hindu Prime Minister Rishi Sunak famously chanted ‘Jai Shri Ram’ at Cambridge earlier this month. But “Jai Sunak” calls at the G20 meet were muted.
Though the British PM was the first Indian-origin person to run a white country which had enslaved India for over 200 years, Sunak was met at the airport by Minister Of State Ashwani Choubey. India’s Prime Minister held a bilateral meeting with him on the summit sidelines and gave him the famous Modi Hug. But he received no special treatment like the heads of the US, Bangladesh and Mauritius, whom Modi invited home to 7 Lok Kalyan Marg for bilateral talks. This was a first in diplomatic history—India’s premier throwing an informal dinner for an American president at his residence. Usually, it’s the President of India who plays the host. Narendra Modi, the Maestro of Subtle Signals, was his belligerent best—telling Putin and Xi that India was a peninsular superpower which made its calls on oil or Ukraine.
Clearly, Sunak, a brown man trying to prove that he is whiter than the whites, got brownie points from neither India nor Britain. However, he was given an honour similar to other not so significant government leaders. New Delhi isn’t amused about the UK law enforcement ignoring terror attacks on the Indian High Commission and failing to block Khalistan protestors. Even after 13 rounds of talks, Whitehall obstructs a vital trade agreement that gives Indian immigrants a better deal. Sunak, who runs with the hare and hunts with the hounds, is experiencing an identity crisis: Is he a Hindu first or a Briton? Diplomacy is heavily imbued with symbolism; despite her Indian roots, Akshata went for a patterned skirt and shirt instead of the sari that her mother would have worn for a ceremonial function.
Although this is Sunak’s first official India visit, he was hardly feted. He being a staunch Hindu, the ruling political class should have pulled out all stops to celebrate Sunak’s arrival with myriad social engagements. When the media aggressively grilled him about British soft pedalling on Khalistan, he replied, “We are working very closely with the Indian government to tackle ‘PKE’ (Pro-Khalistan Extremism) particularly. I don’t think it’s right. Our security minister recently was just in India talking to his counterparts. We have working groups together to share intelligence and information so that we can root out this kind of violent extremism. It’s not right, and I won’t tolerate it in the UK.”
But it was all bluster. His alibi was, “I’m a proud Hindu, and that’s how I was raised. That’s how I am. Hopefully, I can visit a Mandir while I’m here for the next couple of days. We just had Raksha Bandhan, so from my sister and my cousins, I have all my rakhis, and I didn’t have time to celebrate Janmashtami properly the other day. But hopefully, I said, I can make up for that if we visit a Mandir this time. But it’s something that is important to me. I think faith is something that helps everybody who has faith in their lives, particularly when you have these stressful jobs like I have.”
According to government sources, many reasons exist for not extending Sunak special courtesies. He is just one of the 20-odd heads of state attending the Summit. Second, his Conservative Party and prominent ministers are raving at India. The UK Secretary for Home, Suella Braverman, born to Kenyan-Indian and Mauritian parents, is India’s most ardent critic. Last year, she attacked Indians publicly, stating, “...the largest groups of people who overstay are Indian migrants. We even reached an agreement with the Indian government last year to encourage and facilitate better cooperation in this regard. It has not necessarily worked very well”. She openly opposes the trade deal.
Sunak has missed numerous deadlines to deliver on the deal that would benefit Indian tech-fin companies. He told the media, “Lots of progress has been made on this one, but we’re not there yet, so we’ve got to keep going,..” We can’t rush it, and I won’t rush it.” Thousands of Indian students are in limbo because of long term visa restrictions. Hobbled by contradictions, the premier sounded diplomatically undiplomatic on Ukraine, telling journalists, “Well, it’s not for me to tell India what positions to take on international issues, but I know India rightly cares about the international rule of law, UN Charter, and respect for territorial integrity. I think those are things that are universal values that we all share. Those are things that I believe, and India, I know, believes in those things too”. He indirectly advised New Delhi to support the West in its war against India’s age-old ally, Russia. The New Delhi Declaration turned out to be precisely the opposite of what Sunak was lobbying for.
MEA pashas believe Sunak enjoys little clout in his party and doubt his ability to deliver fast. After all, he grabbed power by betraying his mentor, Boris Johnson, and by moving into 10 Downing Street following the resignation of Britain’s 44-day PM Liz Truss, who tanked the economy. Now Sunak’s popular ratings are plummeting as he faces revolt from within. His Indian family affiliation is a liability. Labour MP Darren Jones questioned the trade treaty, citing Sunak’s likely conflict of interests, by arguing that it could benefit Infosys, which Akshata’s billionaire dad Narayana Murthy founded and in which she has a substantial shareholding.
Rishi Sunak is a victim of his binary identity predicament. At home, the British aristocracy and white establishment haven’t come to terms with a brown person leading them. To make the best of both worlds, he champions Hinduism while wooing the empire nostalgics who abhor everything Indian and Hindu. Sunak was for ‘Britain First’ when he first became PM: he had “taken the time” to ensure “international negotiations” and “work for the British people” and won’t “rush things for the sake of it until they’re right for us”.
It won’t go right for Sunak if he fails to resolve Britain’s economic and racial crises. Conservatives in India will see him as a white man with brown skin, a Hindu by convenience, and British by convictions. Modi doesn’t need Sunak for the global Hindu Diaspora’s gargantuan support. India’s supremo understands only strength, and the G20 is a summit for strongmen, not a forum for Britain’s man of straw---an accidental Prime Minister.
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