https://www.heraldgoa.in/Goa/Fortune-favours-the-Braverman/191517
More obvious contenders to replace Boris Johnson were still being coy when Suella Fernandes Braverman seized the day on live television. While being interviewed by ITV’s Robert Peston on Wednesday night, the Attorney General for England and Wales excoriated her boss for handling matters “appallingly”, which made his leadership “untenable.” Then, when the host asked the question she had been waiting for, the 42-year-old went for it with gusto: “I’ll be straight with you, Robert. Yes, I will. If there is a leadership contest, I will put my name into the ring.” Talking past Peston to the national audience, the barrister-turned-politician now leaned into her practiced pitch: “I love this country, my parents came here with absolutely nothing and it was Britain that gave them hope, security and opportunity. This country has afforded me incredible opportunities in education and in my career. I owe a debt of gratitude to this country and to serve as PM would be the greatest honour, so yes, I will try.” For the time being, that distinction – Braverman being the first to enter – is only one footnote of the fast-changing race to claim the top job in UK politics. There are many better-regarded candidates, including former health secretary Sajid Javid, the defence secretary Ben Wallace, the previous defence secretary Penny Mordaunt, and Rishi Sunak, the former chancellor of the exchequer who is married to the daughter of Narayana Murthy of Infosys. The conventional wisdom gives Braverman no chance. In fact, on the morning after her announcement, she was skewered hilariously in parliament by Emily Thornberry, the shadow Attorney General, who rose to address Braverman directly across the aisle, and pronounced with mock gravitas, “Can I say what an honour it is to be at this dispatch box facing the next Prime Minister, as she awaits the call from the Palace.” It was a moment of pure humiliation, and all the other MPs laughed uproariously. One person who isn’t amused is the well-known British-Indian journalist Sunny Hundal, who warned in *The Independent* that “her pitch almost sounds sweet and earnest. A girl from an immigrant family who has done well, proud of her country, and willing to step up and take charge. She would be Britain’s first non-white prime minister and would shatter a big glass ceiling as a non-white woman. But make no mistake, Suella Braverman would also be hugely divisive, turbocharging Britain’s Brexit divide and our culture wars. She would be Boris Johnson on steroids, a brown, female version of Trump.” In terms of personality and public appeal, the comparison is off-base. Braverman comes across more like Piyush “Bobby” Jindal, the former Governor of Louisiana and stalwart of the Republican right wing in the USA. They are both zealous converts (Jindal was born Hindu and is now Catholic, and Braverman belongs to a somewhat mysterious Buddhist sect) who radiate with an unnervingly intense ambition. The biggest difference is timing: the Indian American was always an outlier, but the British Indian is at the centre of the whirlwind of her times. All those other MPs can laugh as hard as they like, because the joke is actually on them. There’s every possibility it will work out for Braverman in the end. How did this happen? How did we go from four “first Black Parliamentarians of our times” in 1987, with that absurd umbrella category lumping in Keith Vaz (who wss born to Goan parents in Aden) along with Paul Boateng, Bernie Grant and Diane Abbott, to the astonishing 40 elected in 2019? More importantly, does the ethnicity of any politician matter, beyond the purely symbolic? In this regard, there is no denying the historic nature of this moment, with – given the revolving-door nature of current leadership – the strong likelihood of one or another British Indian leader taking residence at 10 Downing Street. There is the unavoidable context of imperial history and the connections between Britain and its colonies that brought the likes of Rishi Sunak, Priti Patel and Suella Fernandes Braverman to the UK in the first place. In the case of Braverman, her father Christie Fernandes of Assagao and Nairobi (he married an Indian from Mauritius) stepped off the plane just weeks before Enoch Powell delivered his bilious “Rivers of Blood” speech warning of cultural ruin that would ensue if Indian subjects from Kenya were allowed to settle in the UK. Before and after, there was a long drought of British Indian members of parliament since Dadabhai Naoroji and a couple of others at the turn of the century (including Ernest Soares of Ucassaim and Liverpool, who was elected from Barnstaple in 1900). That began to change in 1987, but not always for the better. Where we are now is complicated – there are many children of immigrants in British politics who support regressive right-wing policies. Sadly, that is how Braverman rolls, railing against imagined conspirators and “woke rubbish.” As the University of Cambridge scholar Priyamvada Gopal pointed out trenchantly on Twitter yesterday: “The same woke rubbish [means] she and I aren't now virginity tested at British airports, and she can study law, be a barrister, run for office and be an Attorney General. There is a particular shamelessness to non-white Tories bashing 'wokeness'. They would still be standing outside Whites Only boards if it wasn't for the 'woke' in history who fought for race and gender liberation.” Hundal tabulates the Braverman stratagem: “Remainer Conspiracy? Tick! Get Brexit Done? Tick! Woke nonsense? Tick! Can’t accuse her of being racist? Tick! Can’t accuse those voting for her of being racist? Big tick!!” He says “Braverman is a strong candidate precisely because she has taken the above stances. She knows this. The Conservative Party want a candidate unafraid to deepen the cultural divides created by Brexit, to preserve the winning coalition that Boris Johnson built. She won’t just carry the torch for Brexit, she will wage a “war on woke” while doing so. She is Boris Johnson’s natural successor, in other words. She will be our version of Trump.” Thinking about this remarkable turn of events, I couldn’t help but wonder what Keith Vaz thought from his vantage of 32 years representing Leicester East (where Braverman once took him on and lost badly) until his career ended in 2019. To my great delight, the longest serving British Indian MP responded to an emailed enquiry: “I am delighted at the progress we have made. From 4 to 40 is a huge achievement but it has still taken 32 years. No matter what their individual policies it is so pleasing to see people of colour do so well. They become instant role models which is excellent for the younger generation. I would be delighted to see [an Indian-origin PM] irrespective of which party. It was rather odd seeing my own sister Valerie Vaz on the front bench, and having Suella as one of my opponents, but I am very proud of all their achievements. Community trumps party.”