‘Humayun’s Tomb a spiritual landmark for Hindus’: Sunday Times piece on UK politics

It seems to be the season for G20, foreign dignitaries and Western media faux pas.

Three years after foreign media waxed eloquent about the threat of then US president Donald Trump being attacked by marauding macaques at the Taj Mahal, a prominent British weekly has now said that UK prime minister Rishi Sunak, on his visit to India during the G20, is expected to visit the Humayun’s tomb, “a spiritual landmark for Hindus”.

The piece, headlined “Summer’s over for Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer but they’re still all at sea”, was published by the Sunday Times on Saturday last week. It spoke about the competition between Sunak and Starmer, who are prominent faces for the Conservative and Labour parties, respectively, ahead of the general election next year.

While the paper detailed what British citizens could expect from national politics, it must have not expected that the piece would leave Indian social media users in splits.

First, on the speculation that Sunak could be “mobbed” by locals, considering his Asian origins. And second, for calling the Humayun’s tomb “a spiritual landmark for Hindus”.

“When Rishi Sunak lands in India at the end of the week, where he will attend the G20 meeting of world leaders, aides expect Britain’s first prime minister of Asian heritage to get a warm welcome. ‘There are places where there are pictures of Rishi up in the streets,’ one aide said. ‘It’s a big deal for them.’ Some sources whisper about the possibility Sunak could be mobbed by local well-wishers,” it read.

“Sunak and his wife, Akshata Murty, the daughter of an Indian tech billionaire, are expected to visit and be pictured at Humayun’s tomb, a spiritual landmark for Hindus and a place that is dear to the couple, in images likely to resonate with voters of Indian origin at home. The trip will be a welcome respite for Sunak given the stark contrast between his standing in Delhi and Deptford. The Tories languish 20 points behind in the opinion polls and the PM’s personal ratings have dropped steadily as his brand of bloodless technocratic leadership has, so far, failed to deliver on his pledges or excite the public.”

This is not the first such faux pas.

In 2020, several Western media reports had referenced “swarms” of “marauding macaques”, the “terror” that “troops of aggressive monkeys” will “pounce” on the president and First Lady Melania Trump, and how this will be a potential “disaster” that will “derail” a future trade detail between India and the US.