–has become Britain’s head cornerstone!

PRIME Minister Rishi Sunak’s selection as the British Conservative Party’s new crown jewel was welcomed like a gift from the gods to Indians at home and abroad, and People of Indian Descent in the sub-continent and the global Indian Diaspora.

Confirmation of Britain’s first Prime Minister, who’s a practicing Hindu, also came on the symbolic day of October 24 when millions the world over celebrated Diwali.

The nationalist media in India celebrated the arrival of the ‘British Raj’, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomed Sunak’s selection as evidence of the growing influence of what he called “the living bridge of UK Indians”.

PM Sunak has been welcomed by Western world leaders as the pair of safe hands Britain needs most now, and he’s expected to administer quick fixes to its battered and broken economy, first and foremost.

But he’s repeatedly made it pellucidly clear that some very tough decisions will be taken, as was also forewarned before by Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor (of the Exchequer), who was appointed by his predecessor, Liz Truss, and whom he’s also kept.

So, the Englishman of Indian origin and Hindu faith selected to lead Britain has been the Man of the Moment; September’s loser who became October’s winner.

Now, all eyes are on him at home, and not only those wishing him well, but also the untold numbers of Britons who wished they had a say in whether he should have been given the keys to Number 10 Downing Street.

And this is where those who continue to praise Prime Minister Sunak’s Indian heritage need to be more careful than politically correct.

Cold-minded, blue-blooded Anglo-Saxons and racists of all stripes waving the Union Jack across the British Isles of the United Kingdom are sorely hurt that a son of immigrants who isn’t devoted to the Church of England is in charge of the Bank of England; the UK Treasury.

It would probably have been a different story if those grumbling had a vote, but they also know they won’t, unless he agrees, as Tory Leader, which they also know is most unlikely before the 2024 deadline.

For the same reasons the grunting elements, and most British Labour Party supporters, wished and prayed to see ex-Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s back, the ‘sickos’ who hold that ‘Only pure Brits should rule Britain’ also want to see Sunak fail.

This usually invisible but very present and sizeable element of the British electorate also includes those who hold on, for dear life, to the age-old notion that “Foreigners have too much say in Britain”, and eternally oppose immigration policies they consider too favourable to non-nationals entering Britain.

That sizeable and effective anti-immigrant lobby is always reflected in the UK Parliament, where MPs claim to represent their constituents’ feelings and vote against pro-immigrant policies.

The ‘Brexit’ vote was a major reminder of the growing power of this ever-trending trend, as Brits mainly voted against opening Britain up to immigrants, including fellow Europeans.

Since the ‘Brexit’ vote that unseated David Cameron and saw the Tory administrations of Theresa May and Boris Johnson flip-flop just before and after the vote, all Tory leaders, bar none, have been guided on immigration policy by their acknowledgment of the demonstrable electoral effect of this large ethnically-pure, anti-immigrant section of the electorate.

This anti-immigrant breed spans both major parties, and continues to grow as economic conditions continue to decline, with the UK facing the highest inflation rate in four decades, ahead of a steamy global recession to be preceded by what can be the UK’s coldest winter ever.

It’s precisely that type of thinking that led to Boris Johnson having worked-out the controversial immigrant deportation deal with Rwanda, the anti-immigrant sentiments also blown-up by the number of Ukrainian immigrants now sharing scarce resources with need Brits, and the continuing streams arriving on the English coast from France.

And this is also why, despite Johnson’s Home Affairs Minister Priti Patel and her current successor Suella Braverman, both being Brits of Asian Descent whose anti-immigrant differences are only in scale and speed of implementation, Braverman was reappointed by Sunak, never mind the whirlwind of criticism that came after he put her back in the same post, one week after she resigned over a security breach (sending official messages through her private e-mail).

And in defense of Braverman’s unpopular reappointment, Prime Minister Sunak took the opportunity to place his own immigrant sentiment on the table during his first speech at Westminster’s Dispatch Box, during Prime Minister’s Questions on Tuesday, accusing the Labour Party and its leader Sir Keith Starmer of “selling fairytales” and “supporting unlimited immigration”.

It is in this light that those in and out of Britain singing well-meaning high praises to Sunak’s Indian heritage must be careful about over-describing him as an ‘Indian’, which he is not, in the British context, as he was born and raised, schooled and been a citizen of the UK all his life.

His adorers must never forget to always remember that Rishi Sunak is the Prime Minister of Britain, and, therefore, always expected to act in Britain’s interest first and foremost, at all times.

The same caution applied to description of half-white Barack Obama as America’s First Black President and to Asian-White-Caribbean US Vice-President Kamla Harris as America’s First Black Vice-President.