British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty prayed at a Hindu temple in New Delhi on Sunday morning during his visit to India for the G20 summit.
The first British Prime Minister of Indian descent and his wife performed an aarti (prayer service) at the Akshardham temple at 6.45am on Sunday before it opened to the public.
Temple trustees said Mr Sunak and his wife, the daughter of NR Narayana Murty, daughter of NR Narayana Murty, founder of Indian IT company Infosys and one of India's richest tech billionaires, walked barefoot in the rain through the complex.
They lit candles in prayer and spoke to young Indian children, aged between nine to 12 years, who recited Sanskrit verses.
“The Prime Minister asked the children about the meaning of the shlokas (Sanskrit verses) they had recited, which was their most favourite verse and why,” Sanjay Kara, a trustee for BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha UK told The National.
The Baps Swaminarayan Sanstha organisation is building a Hindu temple in Abu Dhabi that will be opened during February next year and has built 1,200 temples across the world including in the UK, South Africa, US and Australia.
Mr Kara was among volunteers from the UK and India who accompanied Mr Sunak during the temple visit.
“He spoke to the children in English and his wife talked to them in Hindi. They spent some time talking to the children and asking them about the meaning of the prayers," he said.
Early temple visit
Mr Kara said the Prime Minister had requested a private visit to a temple during his visit.
“It was raining all through their visit and they walked barefoot in the rain throughout the campus for 50 minutes,” Mr Kara said.
“The PM had requested a visit to a mandir (temple) for darshan and prayers. He is a practising Hindu and goes to a temple whenever he can.
“As there are many G20 meetings, he came to the temple very early before it opened up for the public.”
Mr Sunak and his wife offered flowers, bowed in prayer and raised lit candles to the deities as the children recited hymns.
“They spent time looking at the temple architecture, the carvings and volunteers presented them with mementoes and gifts,” Mr Kara said.
Mr Sunak told reporters on the flight from London to New Delhi that he was excited to be in India, a country he visited often before he became chancellor of the exchequer in 2020.
The MP from Richmond, Yorkshire, was born to immigrant parents and has often spoken about his Hindu faith, Indian origins and love for cricket.
“I’m a proud Hindu that’s how I was raised,” he told Indian media in Delhi before the temple visit.
“It is something that is important to me. I think faith is something that helps everybody … particularly when you have stressful jobs like I do - having faith to give you resilience, to give you strength is important."
He will visit cultural sites during his stay in India.
There are hopes for a renewed trade pact with the UK and India in discussions over a free trade deal.
Trade between the two nations is worth £36 billion ($44.9 billion) and in 2022 India was the UK’s sixth largest import market for services.
Mr Sunak’s trip to his ancestral homeland has been described as a historic moment.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has referred to Mr Sunak as the “living bridge of UK Indians” and expressed hope that they could transform historic ties into a modern partnership.
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The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.
The hotels
Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.
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A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages.
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
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Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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Recipe
Garlicky shrimp in olive oil
Gambas Al Ajillo
Preparation time: 5 to 10 minutes
Cooking time: 5 minutes
Serves 4
Ingredients
180ml extra virgin olive oil; 4 to 5 large cloves of garlic, minced or pureed (or 3 to 4 garlic scapes, roughly chopped); 1 or 2 small hot red chillies, dried (or ¼ teaspoon dried red chilli flakes); 400g raw prawns, deveined, heads removed and tails left intact; a generous splash of sweet chilli vinegar; sea salt flakes for seasoning; a small handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
Method
▶ Heat the oil in a terracotta dish or frying pan. Once the oil is sizzling hot, add the garlic and chilli, stirring continuously for about 10 seconds until golden and aromatic.
▶ Add a splash of sweet chilli vinegar and as it vigorously simmers, releasing perfumed aromas, add the prawns and cook, stirring a few times.
▶ Once the prawns turn pink, after 1 or 2 minutes of cooking, remove from the heat and season with sea salt flakes.
▶ Once the prawns are cool enough to eat, scatter with parsley and serve with small forks or toothpicks as the perfect sharing starter. Finish off with crusty bread to soak up all that flavour-infused olive oil.
