Poor little rich 'underdog' Rishi and the U factor

Rishi Sunak’s push to make the Conservative Party love him (or at least to understand his ideas enough to vote him in as their leader) has triggered buried memories in many Indians with long experience of Britain. In ‘Open’, a well thought out Indian magazine, veteran writer and editor Minhaz Merchant has poured his heart out about “ Britain’s Rishi test “.

Mr Merchant, an Indian who went to school in England, writes that “for some highly evolved reason, the English know exactly with whom to be racist and with whom not to be. Rishi Sunak, on the face of it, seems to fall into the latter category. But his elevation as a contender for the British prime ministership has brought out the latent racism that resides, well hidden, in a large majority of English people.”

Sight and sound of Mr Sunak, out campaigning in Conservative Party heartlands, seems to bear out some of Mr Merchant’s lament.

In fact, Mr Sunak has described himself as the underdog in the Conservative leadership race, even goin…