Author: Geng Zhige
Because the Indian business...
On October 25, British Indian-American politician Rishi Sunak not only made history, officially becoming the first Prime Minister of Color and the first Indian Prime Minister in British history, but also regarded as the pride of India by the people living in his native country of India - in particular, as an Indian American, he can become the Prime Minister of the "Sun Never Sets Empire" that once colonized India, which is quite a feeling of "turning over serfs and taking possessions" in the eyes of many Indians.
But who knows, Sunak has not yet covered the bed of the Prime Minister's Office at 10 Downing Street in London, because his relationship with India with his wife has been hit by British public opinion.
It turned out that the British "Guardian" broke a "fierce news" on November 4, local time, saying that Infosys, a famous Indian IT company founded by Sunak's father-in-law Narayana Murti, although it said a few months ago that the company would withdraw from Russia, which is at war with Ukraine, but in fact, the company still has an office in Moscow, the Russian capital, and is still doing business.
At the same time, the Guardian stressed that Sunak's wife, Aksata Murty, is still receiving dividends from her stake in Infosys – in other words, the wife of the current British prime minister is profiting from a company that does business with Russia.
And, perhaps not provocative enough, the Guardian also quoted a Ukrainian politician in the article as saying that any company that makes money from Russia earns "money stained with human blood."
As you can imagine, this report quickly exploded British public opinion and politics, and plunged Sunak into a heavy siege. Among them, Angela Rayner, deputy head of the opposition Labour Party in the British Parliament, reposted the Guardian report on social media, saying that it was a major scandal and denouncing Sunak as a duplicitous person who said one thing and did another: while telling British companies not to invest in Russia, his own family is profiting from Russia.
Moreover, as of 8 p.m. Beijing time on November 6, her post attacking Sunak alone has received more than 9,000 likes and more than 3,600 retweets, which has a considerable impact.
However, although the matter has not yet been reported by the Indian media, some Indian netizens have stopped after noticing it.
Because in their opinion, Infosys is obviously an Indian company, with the freedom to choose where to invest and who to do business with, the British can't care, but the British use the business of this Indian company in Russia to attack Sunak, who is of Indian origin, which is obviously not only for Sunak, but also for India.
Therefore, at present, these Indian netizens have also begun to fight back for Sunak on social networks.
Among them, some Indian netizens posted to emphasize Geng Zhige's view mentioned above, that is, Infosys is an Indian company and should be responsible for Indian shareholders rather than British politics, and using this Indian company to attack Sunak is not only very absurd, but also engaged in "anti-India" political propaganda.
At the same time, Indian netizens found that Ukrainian media reported in September this year that Britain's own companies were also doing business with Russia, and the scale was as many as more than 2,000. Some Indian netizens sarcastically said: Instead of interfering with an Indian company whose vast majority of shareholders are Indians, why don't you British people talk about the problems of your own company?
In fact, objectively speaking, the Guardian's report that Infosys did not withdraw from Russia is indeed a bit of a "fault-finding" feeling.
Because from the facts stated by the newspaper, after announcing its withdrawal from Russia in April this year, Infosys still maintains an office in Moscow, but this office is actually used by the company's local administrative staff for work transactions and equipment processing, and other employees responsible for receiving customers have left. In addition, although the Guardian said Infosys was still serving a Russian customer through two sub-contractors, the British media did not say whether the service was a new cooperation signed after the announcement of the withdrawal or a customer who had already signed a contract before the announcement of the withdrawal.
Of course, the Guardian will "find fault" Sunak in this way, which may also be related to its "position". A May poll by YouGov, a British pollster, showed that a total of 37% of respondents believed that the Guardian's "position" was biased in favor of the opposition Labour Party, only 6% of respondents believed that the newspaper's "position was objective", and 47% said they were unclear. Some British forums also widely consider the newspaper to be pro-Labour or anti-ruling Conservative.
But the newspaper's practice of "finding" an Indian company to crack down on Sunak is small in the pattern. After all, Sunak, who is of Indian descent, is not just the British prime minister, he is also the "light of India." To offend the world's second most populous country for the sake of the current political battle, which is also the largest ethnic group in Britain after whites.[1] If it really off the Indians, I am afraid that the Guardian and even the Labour Party will suffer.
Note 1: According to a report in the New York Times on October 24, 2022, a total of 1.5 million Indians live in England and Wales in the United Kingdom, making Indians the largest ethnic group in the UK outside of white Britain. Data from the official website of the British government also shows that Indians are the largest ethnic group in the UK after whites.