Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram Shashi Tharoor on Tuesday took to Twitter to congratulate Britain's first Indian-origin Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, with an ode to Bollywood.
Rishi Sunak on Tuesday became UK's first Indian-origin prime minister and leader of the Conservative Party, six weeks after he lost the race to Liz Truss.
Shashi Tharoor in his tweet referred to the 2001 movie Lagaan that starred Amir Khan and was directed by Ashutosh Gowariker. Lagaan was the most expensive Indian film at the time of its release.
The movie is based in the British colonial era for India. In 1893 when India is under British occupation, in a small village, the tyrannical Captain Russell (Paul Blackthorne) has imposed an unprecedented land tax on its citizens. Outraged, Bhuvan (Aamir Khan), a rebellious farmer, rallies the villagers to publicly oppose the tax.
Russell offers a novel way to settle the dispute- he challenges Bhuvan and his men to a game of cricket, a sport completely foreign to India. If Bhuvan and his men can defeat Russell's team, the tax will be repealed.
Lagaan refers to the tax that British colonialists imposed unfairly on Indian residents. In Tharoor's tweet, the Congress MP is also talking about Lagaam which refers to the reins used to ride a horse.
“लगान से लगाम तक। सिर्फ 75 साल में। जय हिंद ! 🙏” Tharoor tweeted.
Tharoor in an interview with news agency ANI also said, “It's extraordinary at multiple levels. You can see that Britain has outgrown their racism, shown tremendous willingness to absorb & admit people of other religious faiths & on top of that they've looked at their merit”.
“We should be prepared to look beyond some of the considerations of the caste, religion and class & language and region. What the country should reward is merit” he added.
Rishi Sunak on Tuesday took charge as Britain's first Indian-origin Prime Minister with a promise to fix recent "mistakes" after an audience with King Charles III, a day after he was elected the new leader of the Conservative Party in a historic leadership run.
The 42-year-old investment banker-turned politician is the youngest British prime minister in 210 years. He is also Britain's first Hindu Prime Minister.
In his first address as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said, "Some mistakes were made; not borne of ill-will or bad intentions but mistakes nonetheless and I have been elected as leader of my party and your Prime Minister in part to fix them."
