LONDON: Rishi Sunak, the first British PM of Indian heritage, on Friday said that his visit to New Delhi for the G20 summit was “obviously special” and joked about being referred to as the “son-in-law of India”.
“I saw somewhere that I was referred to as India’s son-in-law, which I hope was meant affectionately,” he said speaking to reporters onboard his flight to New Delhi.
Sunak recalled the days he had spent with his wife Akshata Murthy (the daughter of Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy), who is accompanying him on the trip, in Bangalore.
“Well, you obviously know my wife is from Bangalore, we got married in Bangalore. We used to spend lots of time together before we had children in Delhi, and are trying to figure out if we can go to one of our old favourite restaurants (in Delhi) this evening,” Sunak said.
Expressing pride for his ‘Hindu’ roots, Sunak said, “That’s how I was raised, that’s how I am. Hopefully, I can visit a temple while I am here for the next couple of days. We just had Rakshabandhan, so from my sister and my cousin, I have all my rakhis.” He added: “I didn’t have time to celebrate Janmashtami. But hopefully, as I said I can make up for that if we visit a mandir this time.”
Sunak said he was very proud to see India – “a country that is very near and dear to me” – doing so well on the world stage and added that he had “enormous respect” for PM Narendra Modi. “And at forums like this, I’m very keen to support Prime Minister Modi and making sure that this G20 is an enormous success for India, which I know it will be, and this has been a great year for India more generally,” he added.
“I saw somewhere that I was referred to as India’s son-in-law, which I hope was meant affectionately,” he said speaking to reporters onboard his flight to New Delhi.
Sunak recalled the days he had spent with his wife Akshata Murthy (the daughter of Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy), who is accompanying him on the trip, in Bangalore.
“Well, you obviously know my wife is from Bangalore, we got married in Bangalore. We used to spend lots of time together before we had children in Delhi, and are trying to figure out if we can go to one of our old favourite restaurants (in Delhi) this evening,” Sunak said.
Expressing pride for his ‘Hindu’ roots, Sunak said, “That’s how I was raised, that’s how I am. Hopefully, I can visit a temple while I am here for the next couple of days. We just had Rakshabandhan, so from my sister and my cousin, I have all my rakhis.” He added: “I didn’t have time to celebrate Janmashtami. But hopefully, as I said I can make up for that if we visit a mandir this time.”
Sunak said he was very proud to see India – “a country that is very near and dear to me” – doing so well on the world stage and added that he had “enormous respect” for PM Narendra Modi. “And at forums like this, I’m very keen to support Prime Minister Modi and making sure that this G20 is an enormous success for India, which I know it will be, and this has been a great year for India more generally,” he added.