UK Prime minister Theresa May recently appointed two more Indian-origin ministers into her team, taking the total number to three. One of them is Infosys founder Narayana Murthy's son-in-law Rishi Sunak and the other, Suella Fernandes.
Sunak is married to Murthy's daughter Akshata Murthy. The former businessman was was first elected from the safe Tory seat of Richmond Yorkshire in 2015 and re-elected in 2017 with a higher margin. The 37-year old Stanford alumni has been appointed as an under secretary of state in Britain's Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. Akshata and Sunak who were batchmates at Stanford have two daughters. Sunak is the son of a an Indian doctor and a pharmacist mother
May made the announcement via tweet. “Rishi Sunak MP becomes Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government @mhclg #Reshuffle,” the official UK Prime Minister handle tweeted.
The second Indian-origin minister is Fernandes, 37, a former barrister who was appointed the parliamentary undersecretary of state in the department for exiting the European Union.
As the reshuffle included more ministers from the ethnic minority groups and women, May said she wanted the government to look more like the country it was serving.
Critics of the PM said that the reflected her lower authority after losing majority in the June 2017 election. One cabinet minister, Jeremy Hunt, reportedly refused to be moved out of his health portfolio, and instead got more responsibility.
