The newspaper headlines echo the sentiment. Everyone’s happy that a Brit of Indian origin, and a practising Hindu, is now Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. So we asked Dr Bhaskar Das a question on this for the October 26 edition of Das ka Dum. Read on…
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Q. So should we doing a ‘tunak tunak’ dance now that a British Indian Rishi Sunak has occupied the hot seat at No 10?
A. I think we need to get out of brandishing clannish affinity and be a professional to deliver an outcome that is important not just for UK but for the world. For too long, we have spent time on local issues without realising that we are all connected in some way or the other and whether it’s climate, energy crisis, supply chain challenges, food crisis, populism, rising inflation and growth challenges et al, all of these are affecting the fabric of global society, specially the underprivileged ones. Time is ticking and some short-term (if not medium-term) tough measures have to be taken rather than adopting a populist stance. Fiscal and monetary policies have to be balanced to have a pragmatic approach for solving issues facing humanity and leadership, across the world, need to think and act with compassion. Easier said than done, as in a multipolar world, unipolar aggrandisement is aspired for. Hence an asymmetrical approach is inevitable.
So Tunak Tunak is ok for optics but not now, as humanity is on the throes of a series of unprecedented challenges—economic, social, cultural, environmental and ethical..