UK Prime Minister and Conservative Party chief Rishi Sunak’s parents Yashvir Sunak and Usha Sunak visited the Vaishno Devi shrine in June 2022 this year. Pictures received by News18 show Yashvir and Usha with the CEO of the Mata Vaishnodevi Shrine Board Anshul Garg.
Sunak was chosen as Tory chief and the next UK Prime Minister on Monday after his competitor Penny Mordaunt dropped out after failing to gain backing of 100 MPs needed to enter leadership race.
Yashvir Sunak worked as a general practitioner in Southampton and was born in Kenya. His wife, Rishi Sunak’s mother, Usha Sunak was born in Tanzania.
Usha ran her own pharmacy in Southampton.
His grandparents were born in India before they moved to East Africa and then later to the UK in the 60s.
Sunak’s parents were among the thousands of Indians living in Africa who moved to the UK as British subjects in the 1960s.
Many Indians in the 60s left Uganda, Kenya and other African nations as these African nations earned their independence from European colonies. Many left Uganda as they were forced to migrate due to troubles caused by the Idi Amin dictatorship.
Sunak at an event hosted for him by the members of the East African Indian community backing him acknowledged the role UK played in accommodating those who came in as immigrants from eastern African nations.
“My mom ran the local chemist in Southampton where I grew up, my dad was an NHS GP, and I was brought up with a certain set of values,” Sunak said at the event, according to a report by the Times of India. He added that he was brought up to believe that family provides bonds that no governments can even hope to replicate. He said family is everything.
Sunak said watching his parents made him believe in the power of small businesses. “I worked in my mom’s small pharmacy and I saw first-hand in her books, accounts and payroll just how powerful small companies are in providing jobs and opportunities,” he added while speaking at the event.
Comments
0 comment