Prime Minister Narendra Modi Is Winning Laurels In His Current Foreign Visits

By Sushil Kutty

So, our Pradhan Sewak is the Australian Prime Minister’s ‘Boss’, just like Bruce Springsteen, who was ‘Born in America’. Narendra Damodardas Modi was born in Gujarat and Gujarat is no less full of business magnates as America is. But the question currently roiling minds is why is it that Prime Minister Narendra Modi isn’t the apple of the eye of large chunks of India’s electorate as he is ragingly popular among overseas Indians?

There was a time, not very long ago, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was a crowd-puller of considerable charm at home, too. The kind of desi Pied-Piper who could lead hundreds of millions of India’s teeming electorate up the garden path with mindless ‘Tughlaqifarmans’ like the demonetization, which, it appears, is in his blood, considering that he has repeated it! The point is despite such telltale aberrations, and despite putting all that the BJP had in the Karnataka election campaign, the majority of the Kannadiga preferred the Congress and kicked the BJP out!

The million rupee question, therefore, is, “Why not?” Like why wouldn’t and why shouldn’t Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese be enamoured of Prime Minister Narendra Modi? Also, why are India’s opposition parties getting their jockeys and VIP briefs in a twist because Prime Minister Albanese liked what he saw: big crowds of Indian-Australians flocking to Modi’s call?

Foreign nations, especially heads of state of foreign nations, appear to have taken a strong liking for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and they hold him in high regard. They are in awe of him because they expect some of India’s shine to rub off on their countries’ economies, too. India’s huge market has been ‘Advantage-Modi’ throughout his 9-year reign. Leaders of countries with large numbers of Indian diaspora, especially, like Albanese’s Australia, also sense a political dividend.

Joe Biden’s America, for instance. Biden wants a second term just like Narendra Modi wants a third term. Modi’s popularity among sections of overseas Indians could help Democrat Biden as it did the Republican Donald Trump. India’s captive ‘Modi media’ is pretty damn sure Modi is magnet for the NRI and Overseas Indians, especially the young aspirational ones who get a kick out of waving their Indian passports at immigration counters worldwide.

Then, there are Indian and foreign businesses. Modi and Albanese and Joe Biden, all of them, like the business folk of India and foreign countries, want to live off the fat of India’s burgeoning economic heft, so to speak. Like said, India is currently the magnet that, if properly handled, can draw billions of dollars and the world looks at India today like it looked at China in the 1980s and 1990s.

In fact, China is nervous of India’s economic potential and the nervousness is showing in the manner in which it is – egged on by countries like Pakistan and Turkey – reacting to developments like India’s presidency of the G-20. There is no way India can edge out China from its premier position but geopolitics has its own dynamics. And it does not matter who heads India, irrespective of Narendra Modi, Rahul Gandhi or XYZ, China would still react no differently.

The point being made is “India’s organic rise at this point in India’s history” has nothing much to do with Narendra Modi being Prime Minister. In fact, India would have achieved all that Modi has achieved with somebody, anybody, else at the helm. The difference, for instance, between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the difference between a showboat and a boat with an even keel. If Singh didn’t have to make a show of poise, Modi cannot do without making noise.

So, if Biden wants Modi’s autograph or Albanese cannot stop himself from getting into the good books of Modi by comparing him to rock-star Bruce Springsteen, it is because of India’s current standing in the comity of nations and not because Narendra Modi is Prime Minister. The hard fact is, Prime Minister Narendra Modi cannot always be gallivanting overseas. At the end of the day, he will have to face a differently-motivated electorate. (IPA Service)

IPA Special