Two years back, when Rishi Sunak became the first Indian-origin Prime Minister of the UK, groups of people among us opined how Sunak would write the ultimate revenge saga. It was the Diwali gift, Karma striking back, the circle of life completing itself. What most celebrators failed to notice is that Sunak was always a Brit. And being a Hindu really does not change anything.
Very recently, Sunak boasted about minimising student-dependent migrations. He even posted a video aggressively stamping ‘STOPPED’ on pages conveying different cases of migrations. Like, foreign masters students bringing family members, overseas care workers bringing family dependents, and more.
Cute, right? Sunak was born to East-African-born parents of Punjabi descent in 1980. His parents had migrated to the UK in the 1970s. The UK is among the top 5 preferable destinations for Indian students who want to pursue higher education abroad. According to an Indian Express report, over 1.4 lakh UK student visas were issued to Indian nationals in June 2023. In fact, Indian students in the UK make India among the top 3 origin countries for International students.
But if you say that Sunak is cognisant of his Indian roots and wants to make it better for our students, we’ll believe you. Here’s what people are saying –
But, you know what? Even people living in his own country aren’t all too happy with the announcement.
With all the Sunak celebrations that went on when he became the PM, seeing him post this and implement rules designed so robustly against immigrants, has some sort of tragic comedy to it.