Indians celebrate Rishi Sunak as UK Prime Minister at biggest Hindu festival

As Rishi Sunak of Indian origin prepares to take oath as the new UK Prime Minister, people in India have seen it as another victory to celebrate on Diwali; the biggest Hindu festival.

Mr Sunak’s emergence as the UK Prime Minister has sparked widespread celebration in the former British colony.

Social media was abuzz with congratulatory messages with some people regarding Sunak’s Conservative Party leadership victory as a payback for the former colonizers.

According to some Indian social media users, Mr Sunak’s ascent to the top post was particularly significant as it coincided with India’s 75 years of freedom from British rule.

Leading national TV news channel, New Delhi Television, also congratulated Mr Sunak, running the words: “Indian son rises over the empire”.

India Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, congratulated Mr. Sunak on Twitter, saying he is looking forward to working closely together on global issues.

Celebrating Sunak’s victory, another indian twitter user wrote: “If Netflix hasn’t yet, they should start a mini-series on how a couple of Indians plotted to take revenge on the British by ruling them — the Brits found out and chased them to Africa. They never gave up and finally succeeded three generations later with Rishi Sunak.”

Twitter user Amol Kumar said: “Rishi Sunak is the new UK PM on Diwali 2022. Britain gets the very first Indian-origin Prime Minister.”

“Who would have thought when India celebrates 75 years of independence from the British, the British will get a Prime Minister of Indian origin, a first-ever Hindu PM,” renowned South Indian actor Chiranjeevi Konidela tweeted.

The 42-year-old Sunak is Britain’s youngest prime minister in more than 200 years

He was chosen by a governing Conservative Party desperate to fix its own fractures and guide the country through political and economic turbulence.