Leo Varadkar: Indian-origin leader, second term as Prime Minister of Ireland
After a gap of thirty months, Leo Varadkar of Indian origin has become the Prime Minister of Ireland. He has become the Prime Minister of the country for the second time.
After the elections held in the year 2020, there was an alliance between the Fine Gael Party, the Fiena Fail Party and the Green Party to form the government here.
Before the formation of the coalition government, it was agreed that the leaders of two of these parties will take charge of the post of Prime Minister of the country half-time.
It was agreed at that time that Fianna Fáil’s Michael Martin will hold the office of Prime Minister until December 16, 2022, after which he will hold the post of Deputy Prime Minister and Fine Gael’s Varadkar, who is holding the post of Deputy Prime Minister, will take over as Prime Minister.
Varadkar was born on 18 January 1979 in Dublin. His mother Mary was from Ireland and worked as a nurse.
His father Ashok was an Indian migrant. He was a doctor by profession and worked in the National Health Service of England in the 1960s. Both of them met here.
Ashok hailed from Varad village of Sindhudurg district in Maharashtra and lived in Mumbai. The family settled in Ireland in the 1960s.
Leo Varadkar was born here. He is the youngest son of his father Ashok Varadkar.
His early education was at St. Francis National School. For further studies, he enrolled in a private secondary school, King’s Hospital.
He received his medical degree from Trinity College, Dublin in 2003, after which he started practicing. He had stepped into politics from his student life. In 2007, he won the election from Dublin West on a Fine Gael ticket and became a councillor. At that time he was only 24 years old.
In 2019, he also came to his native village in Sindhudurg with his family.
In 2011, his party Fine Gael won the election and joined the coalition government. At that time, Varadkar was made Minister of Transport, Tourism and Sports. Later in 2014 he was given the Ministry of Health.
In 2017, Varadkar was elected leader of the Fine Gael party for the first time since the resignation of Enda Kenny.
He was elected Prime Minister in 2017. He was the youngest gay Prime Minister of the country.
In February 2020, he resigned from this post, but he remained the caretaker prime minister for the next few months.
Important responsibility played during the epidemic
When Varadkar became Prime Minister, Britain was preparing to implement Brexit and Ireland was discussing cross-border trade with it.
Under the leadership of Varadkar, Ireland spoke to Britain so that strict restrictions are not imposed on the movement of people across the border between the two.
After this, when the elections were held in 2020, Varadkar was elected as the new Deputy Prime Minister of the country. The country was struggling with the Kovid epidemic during this period and Varadkar’s challenges had increased. He said while imposing restrictions that work from home will soon become common.
Varadkar, who left practice as a doctor in 2013, returned to practice once again in March 2020 during the epidemic. Seeing the need for doctors to deal with the crisis, he decided to treat people once a week. During this time, he used to give advice to people on the phone.
