New Delhi: The Congress disagreed with its leaders P Chidambaram and Shashi Tharoor on the fact that India needs to “draw lessons” from the UK where a minority leader consolidated the Prime Minister’s position.

The people of the US and the UK have embraced the non-majority citizens of their countries

Jairam Ramesh who is the main Congress body’s general secretary of communications said that India has always respected diversity. Ramesh gave examples of Zakir Hussain, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, and APJ Abdul Kalam as people from minority groups who held top positions in the country.

“In our country, Dr Zakir Hussain first became the President in 1967, then Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed became the President and Dr Abdul Kalam and if I keep giving you examples, Barkatullah Khan became chief minister and AR Antulay also became the chief minister,” he told reporters.

P Chidambaram and Shashi Tharoor celebrated the news of Indian-origin Rishi Sunak becoming UK’s 57th Prime Minister. In addition, they remarked that India needs to learn a lesson from this event. The event being — a minority getting the opportunity to lead a country. Tharoor and Chidambaram “hoped” that this would occur in India someday.

“First Kamala Harris, now Rishi Sunak. The people of the US and the UK have embraced the non-majority citizens of their countries and elected them to high office in government,” Chidambaram said on Twitter.

Tharoor wrote on Twitter, “If this does happen, I think all of us will have to acknowledge that the Brits have done something very rare in the world, to place a member of a visible minority in the most powerful office. As we Indians celebrate the ascent of @RishiSunak, let’s honestly ask: can it happen here.”