The wheel has decidedly turned full circle. The British ruled India for nearly a century via direct rule of the British Crown. Now the bells have tolled for exactly the reverse. A young leader of Indian origin with Punjabi blood in him takes over the reins of Britain or what’s rechristened as the United Kingdom. Situations conspired to put Rishi Sunak in the saddle, the youngest Prime Minister in 200 years, edging out stalwarts like former PMs Boris Johnson and Liz Truss. While Sunak had narrowly missed the bus a month ago, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer has bounced back to the top position by virtue of the massive support he garnered from the Conservative MPs. Without doubt, the UK is passing through a period of political instability as is reflected in the frequent change of governments and PMs, a situation accentuated by economic woes, the Brexit issues linked to the European Union and the absence of a powerful personality like Margaret Thatcher to lead the nation. The Covid19 mess added to the internal woes. Liz Truss in her less than 45 days in power erred at the very start, adding to the worries of the Brits on the economic front.
The start of the era of Globalization in the early 1990s had signaled a new world order – of oneness, raising the prospects of borders withering away and the entire humanity living without barriers in the form of a global village. That frenzy was undercut at its initial jab itself by the arrival of Islamic fundamentalism, the bombing of the US by the Al Qaeda and the wars in Afghanistan and Iran. Islamic nations in the West Asia region have been turned into breeding grounds for Islamic terrorists. The Russia-Ukraine conflict further divided the world. Nations thus have no choice other than to stand apart, strengthen their borders and regulate the movement of people from one nation to another. Divided we stand. Yet, the spirit of unity and the urge to see the parts as the whole are slowly showing up. A quarter of a century ago, it was unthinkable that a Black person would be an American President; equally unfathomable was that someone of Asian origin could lead the UK as its prime minister. The US has a vice president in the form of Kamala Harris who is of mixed African-Indian parentage, who could someday even become the President. The destiny of such large economies and super powers are being reshaped now by young leaders like Sunak aged 42, a Stanford University Fulbright Scholar, and Harvard-bred Attorney Harris, 57. Old hats in India should take note.
