Rishi Sunak would have been the 6th Indian origin head of state. But it was not to be. Here’s how it happened in the UK:
Controversial, bold and maverick Boris Johnson resigned as the Conservative Party leader and the UK prime minister when Mahendra Singh Dhoni turned 41 — July 7. It was not a call of conscience but a decision thrust upon him, practically. His cabinet had faced a string of resignations, beginning with Sunak. Alleged scandals were making news waves — allegations of sexual misconduct against a lawmaker, and indictment for holding parties while the nation was in the Covid-19 lockdown.
A PM’s resignation in the UK does not necessarily mean a general election. There is another intense democratic process — of holding an election in the ruling party structure to decide who could lead the country.
The UK’s oldest political party, the Conservative Party, held that election in a true sense — unlike its Indian counterpart. In that election, Indian origin leader Sunak tasted defeat, with some experts saying that the non-Indian origin sub-continental members opposed him.
Who was the PM all this while? Johnson. And, he did not try to do any ‘operation’ to stay in power after September 6, as had been scheduled unofficially.
How did they do it? Their system requires a Conservative Party MP to be nominated by at least 20 fellow MPs to be eligible to run the race to the prime minister’s chair.
In the first stage, MPs vote in a series of secret ballots — to eliminate the candidate with the lowest votes. They repeat the process until they have only two PM contenders.
In the first stage, eight challengers were chosen. You want names? It’s boring but here they are — former finance minister Rishi Sunak, foreign secretary Liz Truss, junior trade minister Penny Mordaunt, former equalities minister Kemi Badenoch, attorney general Suella Braverman, former health secretary Jeremy Hunt, foreign affairs Committee chairman Tom Tugendhat, and chancellor Nadhim Zahawi.
And as you know, Truss and Sunak stayed the course when secret voting ended. At 42, Sunak was an Indian favourite not because he was an MP from Richmond, Yorkshire, from where Sachin Tendular played county cricket in a historical sporting turn but because of his Indian connection — and for being the son-in-law of India’s favourite IT hero Narayan Murthy. Had he defeated Truss, Sunak would have become the first person of colour — as they call it in the white race world — to become the UK prime minister.
A little older than Sunak, 46-year-old Truss — born only a month after Indira Gandhi brought India under her National Emergency — was the foreign policy portfolio holder in Johnson’s cabinet. Despite being younger than Rahul Gandhi, the de facto leader of India’s GOP, she is a veteran in handling government roles, having worked under UK prime ministers David Cameron and Theresa May before Johnson.
In the final stage of election, all the card holders of the Conservative Party — also called Tories; I don’t know much about their origin or why they are called what they are called but I know that they were the supporters of British colonialism, with their origin lying in the British civil war when their guiding philosophy was “God, Queen, and Country” to keep the English traditional culture alive and dominating — vote to elect their leader. This is where Truss defeated Sunak by over 20,000 votes.
I was surprised by their numbers. Why? Because the UK has a population of less than 7 crore, and its GOP declares a victory margin that is two times more than the total number of voters in India’s GOP when they elect their president next month. And unlike the UK, Indian GOP voters have their tenures expired.
When the ruling party voters have decided, the Crown, currently the Queen, completes the formality of accepting the resignation of the resigned and accepting the offer/granting permission to the next (Truss) to form the Queen’s next government. By the way, while we name an Indian government after the prime minister, technically the PM runs the President’s government. If you don’t believe me, tune in to the next joint session of Parliament when incumbent Draupadi Murmu addresses it. She will say, “Meri Sarkaar…”
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