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Amidst rich nations facing existential challenge, the UK has just got in\u00a0Rishi Sunak, the \u00a0first Indian-origin Prime Minister, who calls\u00a0himself a \u201cproud Hindu\u201d who took oath on the Bhagavad Gita after becoming an MP and has become\u00a0the first person of colour to occupy this chair.\u00a0The 42-years old is the youngest UK PM in two centuries, the country’s third prime minister in three months and its fifth in just over six years. It is a reflection of deep problems in the economy.<\/p>\n
The Cover Story in Tehelka this time is by Gopal Misra \u201cEconomic Crisis Hits Europe\u201d as\u00a0the Rich Nations Face Existential Challenges.\u00a0Misra writes that the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war is such a perilous affair that has not only plunged nearly one third of Ukraine into darkness, with acute shortage of drinking water but a dead winter awaits Europe which is facing existential crisis. It has ushered in a winter of rising discontent for the people in different parts of Europe. They are getting themselves warmed up by burning biomass. In Poland, in villages, trees are being cut to obtain logs for heating purposes. In France, the rationing of petrol has already begun. In Germany, the traffic lights are being closed down during night to save energy. In the UK, restaurants are closing down due to the use of power restrictions. In Spain, there is a blanket ban on the use of air-conditioners and its violation has been made an offence.<\/p>\n
In such a scenario, one section that is upbeat is the diaspora which finds in Rishi Sunak\u2019s elevation, a man of Indian origin ruling over the former colonial rulers.\u00a0His ascendancy to\u00a010 Downing Street\u00a0after\u00a0Liz Truss\u2019 blink-and-you-miss-it truncated tenure as the UK Prime Minister\u00a0is\u00a0indeed a watershed in contemporary British history. Earlier, her predecessor Boris Johnson faced an ignominious exit in the wake of alleged inept handling of\u00a0the coronavirus pandemic to allegations of corruption, cronyism and\u00a0the cost-of-living crisis pushing erstwhile colonial rulers below India on the economic front.<\/p>\n
Shakespeare\u2019s famous lines,\u00a0\u201cUneasy lies the head that wears a crown\u201d are most befitting for\u00a0Sunak who himself has described that UK is facing a \u2018profound economic challenge\u2019 with\u00a0estimated budget deficit of $45 billion and growing inflation of around 10 per cent and recessionary trends.\u00a0 Challenges for Sunak are daunting\u00a0but in his first speech as PM, he emphasised he is \u201cnot daunted\u201d.\u00a0 Let it not be just the plain\u00a0euphoria.<\/p>\n
A key takeaway of\u00a0Sunak\u2019s ascendancy to\u00a010 Downing Street\u00a0is that people can look beyond colour and creed to embrace competence to meet the new challenges.\u00a0India has for long shown to the world that the nation can be better run with presidents and prime ministers from minority communities and humble backgrounds.<\/p>\n
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Amidst rich nations facing existential challenge, the UK has just got in\u00a0Rishi Sunak, the \u00a0first Indian-origin Prime Minister, who calls\u00a0himself a \u201cproud Hindu\u201d who took oath on the Bhagavad Gita after becoming an MP and has become\u00a0the first person of colour to occupy this chair.\u00a0The 42-years old is the youngest UK PM in two centuries, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":340242,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[214,23,2205],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340241"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340241"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":340243,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340241\/revisions\/340243"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/340242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}