Features

Mr & Mrs Rishi Sunak – well known and lesser known facts

Published

2 years ago

2024/07/21

It’s different, almost strange, to write about a person who has lost his powerful position. However I feel I must write about Rishi Sunak of Indian descent who held his own seat but had to concede the recent British election to the Labour Party; and of course about his pretty wife, also of Indian descent. You may echo a person I know who says – “Sunak is no Indian; he is more British than most British.” Maybe, but he makes known his Indian descent and is a practicing Hindu, married to a woman who still retains her Indian citizenship.

My title tells you I will write about the couple. Even more remarkable than them are Mr Sunak’s parents-in-law. I read about them, ferreted less known facts and mean to pass some on to you this Sunday morning.

Rishi Sunak

was born May 12, 1980, eldest of three children, in Southampton to an Indian GP and wife from East Africa who migrated to the UK in the 1960s. She studied and became a pharmacist and later opened her own pharmacy. Rishi was sent to prestigious Winchester College where he was Head Prefect. Then followed his degree at Lincoln College, Oxford, and Masters in Business Admin from Stanford University, a Fulbright scholar.

While at Oxford he undertook an internship in the Conservative Central Office and joined the Party. He returned to England after his marriage to Akshata Murty, a co-student at Stanford, and living a few years in Santa Fe, US. It was a strong bond from the time he met her and shielded her from the rain under an umbrella. The closeness seems to be stronger now after 14 years of marriage and many career ups and downs for him. They claim to be each other’s best friend.

His political career was meteoric for a person of foreign descent in a country where the Church’s influence and hold are strong. When Boris Johnson had to resign the premiership, Sunak and Liz Truss contested the post of Leader of the Conservative Party. Liz won but her term was the shortest in British history – she resigned and Rishi Sunak was elected Tory Leader in October 2022 and was Prime Minster from then to recently. He served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2020 until he resigned during the government crisis under PM Johnson. He has been MP for a North Yorkshire constituency since 2015. He holds the record of being youngest PM at 42 in contemporary times, next to Robert Jenkins -1812. William Pitt at 24 was PM in 1783. Sunak also the richest British PM of all time! I used the word meteoric as adjective to his political career: he rose to be 57^th PM after just seven years in Parliament.

Wife Akshata Murty is known for being richer than King Charles III and owner of 0.9% of Infosys Ltd – Indian multinational IT company providing business consultation and outsourcing services, founded in Pune and headquartered in Bangalore. She is listed as an Indian heiress, business woman, fashion designer (Akshata Designs) and venture capitalist. The couple are ranked the 245^th richest family in the UK. But to me the major personality traits are her graciousness, her down-to-earthiness, her being a dutiful, frequently visiting daughter, supportive wife and very concerned ‘eastern’ mother. An article said she would invariably be on a train from Kings Cross to Darlington on a Friday afternoon with two daughters; “petite woman in her early forties, her black hair in a ponytail tucked under a baseball cap, coaxing her two daughters to get on with their homework at the table in a standard class carriage.” They were on their way to the family’s Richmond constituency retreat – their mansion in North Yorkshire.

Also seen in a published photograph is a slim girl and an oldish man, obviously Indian, seated on a ledge at a street-side ice cream kiosk licking a cone: Akshata and her father.

About her impeccable fashion sense I quote from an article in the Tatler: “’Dishy Rishi’ cuts a suave figure but behind every style savvy straight man, is always an ultra-chic woman. Enter: Akshata Murty.” The article refers to the dress she wore to Buckingham Palace for the state dinner to the President and First Lady of South Korea: “silk-satin maxi dress by Saloni in deep claret – the exact shade of the taegeuk symbol in the flag of South Korea… a bold and chic move in diplomatic dressing.” The article continued: “We’re certainly ready for it. After a short stint of Liz Truss’ Claire’s earrings, a longer stay of Carrie Johnson’s rented wardrobe, and what felt like a lifetime of Theresa May’s quirky pumps, Akshata Murty had brought fashion back to No. 10. Not since Margaret Thatcher ruled Downing Street in a series of tweed twin-sets and pearl necklaces had British politics been so tasteful.” The outgoing PM’s wife wore a white, blue and red striped dress as they bid goodbye to those at 10 Downing Street on July 5.

I once asked my friends why we do not see Akshata in the media in sari or other Indian dress; mildly critical of her. “She’s representing the British so wisely she does not thrust her Indianness up front.” So correct.

Her father N R Narayan Murthy (only he adds the ‘h’ to the name) is the 669^th richest person in the world. Among the slew of Indian billionaires he is noted as the Bill Gates of India; remains simple though the sign Infosys is seen all over, even on the Roland Garros tennis court.

Mr & Mrs Rishi Sunak

To me however, more noteworthy and newsworthy is Akshata’s mother Sudha Kalkarni Murty, b 1951. She began her professional career in IT and engineering and then partnered her husband in 1996 to found and develop Infosys. She went further and created Infosys Foundation, thus spending much earned money in helping others. Very many are the orphans and orphanages; rural development efforts, and even prostitutes she has helped. She headed the movement to provide all Karnataka govt schools with computer and library facilities and established Murty Classical Library of India at Harvard University. She gave up engineering in 1980 and took to teaching so she had more time to be with Akshata and son Rohan.

Outstanding, outspoken, strong woman she is, surely the wind below the entrepreneur wings of her husband. She once said: “I got my husband to be a businessman but my daughter got hers to be a prime minister.” This year she was nominated as a Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha. She received the Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan, fourth and third highest Indian civilian awards. She is best known for her philanthropy and her contribution to literature in Kannada and English, being a published writer.

Criticism leveled at the Sunaks

Much hyped was that Akshata Murty did not take Brit citizenship to avoid paying taxes. She preferred to be Indian and India does not allow dual citizenship, I was told. She paid taxes and righted matters just before her husband became PM.

They attended the D-Day commemorations in Normandy on June 6 this year and he made a stirring address. The couple left early as Sunak was scheduled for an ITV interview. They were maligned for leaving the veterans sooner than expected. He apologized more than once. Nigel Farage of the Reform Party, was one of the severest critics on this issue. Correct it seems to suppose this PM faced more scrutiny and criticism than an accepted British PM would.

Channel 4 showed a canvasser to have Reform UK leader Farage elected as MP for Clacton using a racial slur when referring to PM Sunak. Sunak’s reply to this: “My two daughters have to see and hear Reform people who campaign for Nigel Farage calling me an effing Paki. It hurts and makes me angry, and I think he has some questions to answer…”

Maybe not criticized but evoking surprise was a video clip of people celebrating Thai Pongal enjoying a traditional Indian meal of idli etc on banana leaf ‘plates’ using fingers and captioned as at 10 Downing Street. Proved wrong. It was an event organized by the Tamil Cultural Association, Waterloo, Canada. However, Sunak did send Pongal wishes of health and happiness to all Hindus.

On May 7, Akshata organized very many picnics and lunches to celebrate the king’s coronation. She has invited batches of school children to 10 Downing Street. She served tea and biscuits to journalists on one occasion outside the official residence. Comment that emerged loudest was that the mugs cost pounds sterling 35 each. How petty can the media be?

She made an excellent speech on her husband, a surprise to him, at the October 5 Conservative Party Convention when he aspired to be elected Head of the Party. She said “Aspiration runs through Rishi’s DNA.”

Much much more can be written about them. I end however with quoting an article I read: ‘If someone has done all of this and you just paper it over by saying ‘you are just a rich kid’, you are denigrating academia, you are denigrating values, you are denigrating a path of simplicity that the family has tread on all their lives.” Equally applicable to the older and younger couple.

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Features

From stabilisation to transformation without delay

Published

1 hour ago

2026/05/26

Sahan Weerasooriya

At a symposium on reconciliation organised by the National Peace Council last week, more than 250 religious clergy, civic activists and political representatives from different communities gathered to discuss the country’s future. Speaking at the event, Minister Bimal Rathnayake explained the government’s approach to national reconciliation. He said the government viewed the country’s recovery in terms of a three stage process. The first stage was stabilisation, the second was development and the third was transformation. Reconciliation, he implied, would come in that final stage. The participation of Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa at the same symposium, and the constructive nature of his comments, strengthens that hope.

When the present NPP government took office in 2024, the country was emerging from one of the gravest crises in its post Independence history. The economic collapse of 2022 had led to shortages of fuel, food, medicines and electricity. Inflation soared, foreign reserves disappeared and long queues became part of daily life. The political upheaval that followed culminated in the resignation of former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa after mass public protests under the banner of the Aragalaya movement. The country was then governed by a leadership that spoke the language of reform and reconciliation but was widely perceived as lacking a direct popular mandate.

Sri Lanka’s past experience suggests that stabilisation and transformation cannot be treated as entirely separate stages. Postponing reconciliation until some future moment risks repeating the failures of the past. If transformation is endlessly delayed until a supposedly perfect moment arrives, there will always be new crises and new reasons for postponement. Minister Rathnayake’s contention that the government’s immediate priority has necessarily been stabilisation flows from the government’s awareness of the precarious situation the country is. Over the past two years, the government has succeeded to a significant extent in restoring economic and political stability. Inflation has reduced, shortages have ended and public institutions have regained a degree of functionality.

Guaranteed Changes

On the other hand, the country’s development continues to face challenges due to adverse global conditions, including disruptions caused by conflict in the Middle East and extreme weather events that have affected tourism, trade and the cost of living. The danger is that reconciliation may be indefinitely postponed in the name of stabilisation. This danger can be reduced if the government works proactively with the opposition and civil society to commence practical measures of transformation now rather than later. The participation of Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa at the symposium, and the constructive nature of his comments, has strengthened the sense that bipartisan engagement on reconciliation may now be possible.

The urgency of transformation came through strongly in the presentations made by representatives of the Sri Lanka Tamil and Malaiyaha Tamil communities. ITAK parliamentarian S.Shritharan spoke of the frustration caused by unresolved post war issues in the north and east. He referred to disputes regarding land occupied during the war years, including controversies linked to Buddhist temples and state sponsored settlement activity in areas claimed by local communities. He also pointed to the continuing large scale presence of the security forces in the north and east nearly two decades after the end of the war. These grievances have remained central to Tamil political discourse since the end of the armed conflict in 2009. Families displaced by war continue to seek the return of ancestral lands. Civil society organisations in the north have repeatedly called for greater civilian control over local administration and a reduction in military involvement in civilian life.

Academic research and practical work on the ground have shown that reconciliation cannot be separated from questions of dignity, equality and justice. Former minister Mano Ganesan, leader of the Democratic People’s Front, focused on the longstanding problems faced by the Malaiyaha Tamil community. He spoke passionately about continuing housing shortages, landlessness and economic marginalisation, issues that have persisted since Independence. He also highlighted the devastating impact of recent extreme weather events on estate communities that remain socially and economically vulnerable. The condition of the Malaiyaha Tamil community remains one of the enduring social justice issues in Sri Lanka.

After Independence in 1948, a large proportion of them were denied citizenship and voting rights through legislation that rendered them stateless. Though citizenship rights were eventually restored, the social and economic consequences of exclusion continue to be felt generations later.

Many families still lack secure housing and land ownership despite their immense contribution to the country’s plantation economy. Minister Rathnayake’s responses to both these concerns were politically significant. He argued that recent political developments, including the declining influence of narrow ethnic politics across communities, indicated a major shift in public attitudes. According to him, the political ground has changed in ways that make it increasingly difficult for politicians who rely primarily on ethnic division and communal insecurity to retain public support.

Inter-Connected

There is evidence to support the assessment about the changing political grounding which sees future prospects in the resolution of long standing problems. . The economic collapse of 2022 affected all communities alike and generated a new politics centred on governance, anti corruption, accountability and economic justice. The Aragalaya protests brought together Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims in a common demand for political change. Although ethnic grievances have not disappeared, the crisis created space for a broader understanding that the country’s future depends on cooperation rather than division. Opposition Leader Premadasa’s comments at the symposium reflected this changing political climate. He emphasised that national reconciliation could not be separated from economic justice and the need to address disparities between regions and social classes.v He also mentioned the need for civil society organisations to take this message to the community. This wider understanding of reconciliation is important because ethnic inequality and economic inequality have often reinforced each other in Sri Lanka’s history.

Academic studies have identified the denial of citizenship rights after Independence as a historic injustice that set back the Malaiyaha community for decades. The challenge now is to ensure that transformation becomes part of the stabilisation and development process itself. Practical first steps are both possible and necessary. The release of civilian lands still under state control, greater devolution of administrative authority, reduction of military involvement in civilian affairs, language equality in public administration and accelerated housing and land ownership programmes in the plantation sector are all measures that can begin immediately without waiting for a final stage of transformation.

The government’s recent commitment that provincial council elections will finally be held this year is therefore significant. These elections have been repeatedly postponed by successive governments. Holding them would not solve the ethnic conflict by itself. But it would signal a willingness to restore democratic institutions and share power in a meaningful way.

Sri Lanka has repeatedly postponed difficult reforms in the hope that a more convenient political moment would eventually arrive. But opportunities are invariably created and fought for instead of being provided as a gift by a benevolent government.

The present moment, shaped by the economic crisis and public demand for accountable government, offers a rare opportunity to move simultaneously towards stability, development and reconciliation. Provincial council elections can be the first meaningful step. But they must not be the last.

by Jehan Perera

Features

Researchers to shape new environmental policy framework

Published

1 hour ago

2026/05/26

Sahan Weerasooriya

Some of the researchers at the meeting

In a significant move aimed at steering Sri Lanka’s environmental governance towards a more science-based and evidence-driven path, the Ministry of Environment has initiated a new collaborative mechanism to integrate leading researchers into national policy formulation and conservation planning.

The initiative was discussed at a high-level meeting chaired by Dr. Dammika Patabendi at the Ministry of Environment on Tuesday, where top environmental scientists, wildlife experts and researchers were invited to contribute towards what officials described as a “strategic transition” in the country’s environmental management framework.

The discussions focused on strengthening the scientific basis of environmental conservation programmes and national policy decisions while creating a more research-friendly environment for academics and field scientists engaged in biodiversity and ecological studies.

Particular attention was paid to long-standing concerns raised by researchers regarding procedural and operational difficulties encountered when conducting studies in collaboration with the Department of Wildlife Conservation and the Forest Department.

Minister Patabendi stressed the need for environmental policies to be guided by credible scientific data rather than ad hoc administrative decisions, ministry sources said.

Among the key proposals discussed was the establishment of a streamlined mechanism that would reduce bureaucratic obstacles faced by researchers in obtaining approvals, accessing field sites and sharing scientific findings with state institutions.

The Minister highlighted the importance of building stronger partnerships between policymakers and the scientific community at a time when Sri Lanka is grappling with escalating environmental challenges including deforestation, biodiversity loss, human-elephant conflict, climate-related disasters and ecosystem degradation.

Environmentalists attending the meeting had also highlighted the urgent necessity of incorporating empirical research into national decision-making processes to ensure long-term ecological sustainability and better resource management.

The meeting brought together several of Sri Lanka’s leading environmental researchers and academics including Rohan Pethiyagoda, Saminda Fernando, Sewwandi Jayakody, Samantha Gunasekara, Dinidu Devapura, Himesh Jayasinghe, Manoj Prasanna, Mendis Wickramasinghe and Suranjan Karunarathna.

Director General of Wildlife Conservation Ranjan Marasinghe also participated in the deliberations.

Officials said the proposed framework is expected to pave the way for a more transparent, data-oriented and scientifically credible environmental governance structure capable of addressing emerging conservation challenges more effectively.

The government expects the new mechanism to support the implementation of practical and scientifically robust programmes aimed at safeguarding Sri Lanka’s ecological future while enhancing cooperation between state agencies and the country’s growing community of environmental researchers.

By Ifham Nizam

Features

Back home … for a special occasion

Published

1 hour ago

2026/05/26

Sahan Weerasooriya

Seven Notes: Sri Lankans based in Dubai – with Niluk (second from left)

Niluk Uswaththa, of Seven Notes fame, based in Dubai, surprised many when he and his wife Apeksha, turned up in Colombo, last week … unannounced.

Yes, they had a purpose in their surprise visit … to wish Apeksha’s mum for her birthday, which was on Monday, 18th May, and what a surprise it turned out to be!

In an exclusive chit-chat with The Island, Niluk said that the scene in Dubai is improving and Seven Notes do have work coming their way.

Since the members of Seven Notes are all employed (doing day jobs), they operate only on Saturdays and Sundays.

Niluk: Didn’t come prepared to perform, but obliged
friends in Galle

In fact, to get to Colombo for the birthday surprise (on Monday, 18th May), the band had to skip their 17th May, Sunday gig.

“Although it’s a short vacation, my wife and I are enjoying the setup here,” said Niluk, adding that they spent two days in Galle and that their next destination is Anuradhapura.”

Niluk didn’t come prepared to perform, but he obliged the crowd present, at a friend’s birthday celebrations, in Galle, singing and playing guitar.

They are scheduled to leave for their home, in Dubai, in the first week of June.

Seven Notes is an outfit made up of Sri Lankans and the band has been around for almost nine years.

Niluk came into their scene nearly seven years ago.

“When I went to Dubai, I had offers coming my way but it was Seven Notes that impressed me because of their acoustic style.”

The Dubai’s entertainment scene is showing clear signs of bouncing back and even levelling up in the next few months.

Niluk and Apeksha: Enjoying their short vacation

After a slowdown earlier this year due to regional tensions, shows and festivals are back on the calendar, and organisers say late 2026 could be the busiest concert season in years.

Time Out Dubai says “the 2026 concert calendar is filling up nicely” and “the city is ready to party once again” after some reschedules.

Dubai Summer Surprises in July brings retail activations, comedy nights, and indoor art exhibitions.

Organisers point to a backlog of postponed events that are being rescheduled for late 2026 and early 2027.

Yes, Dubai is calm on the surface but on alert. Life is mostly normal in the city, but there’s a “balancing act” as people watch for escalation.