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The meteoric rise of Rishi Sunak!-By Dr Upul Wijayawardhana Source:Island Monday, 24th October, is a momentous day in British political history; the day MPs of the governing Conservative Party elected Rishi Sunak as their leader, paving the way for him to become United Kingdom’s first Prime Minister of Asian descent. Sunak is a practising Hindu and, interestingly, it happened on one of the most important days for Hindus: Diwali, ‘The Festival of Lights’. He is the first non-white PM, too, though not the first from an ethnic minority; that honour going to Benjami Disraeli, who became PM in 1868. Disraeli is of Jewish origin but was baptized an Anglican, at the age of 12 years. Surprisingly, Ireland beat the UK when they elected Leo Varadkar as the Taoiseach (PM) in 2017. He has an Indian father and Irish mother, and is gay. It, indeed, is a ‘political bombshell’! The former ...