Modi’s high-flying US tour

QUITE apart from the theatricals, one has come to expect from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visits abroad with bear hugs for the powerful and the famous, what have been the gains of his five-day coast-to-coast sojourn in the United States? One gain is his, and India’s, greater visibility in that order.

That Obama met Modi, despite his packed schedule, is a positive indicator.

S Nihal Singh

QUITE apart from the theatricals one has come to expect from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visits abroad with bear hugs for the powerful and the famous, what have been the gains of his five-day coast-to-coast sojourn in the United States? One gain is his, and India’s, greater visibility in that order. The other is a continuation of the dialogue with US President Barack Obama, perhaps the country’s most important relationship, and the third is to give momentum to India’s quest for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). In addition, his objective was to burnish his credentials as a tech-savvy leader of government. On the negative side, Mr Modi is in danger of becoming the Donald Trump of Indian politics. In the process of winning NRI friends abroad, he is inadvertently, or otherwise, destroying the national consensus upon which the success of his term in office will rest. Although par for the course for him, his obsession with Congress-bashing was taken to a new extreme by regaling his adoring San Jose crowd with the alleged misdemeanours of the Gandhi family. It was certainly a good idea to get the other three heads of government together to give fillip to the original G-4 group of countries (Germany, Japan and Brazil being the other three) to reiterate their validity to permanent membership of the UNSC on the 70th anniversary of the world organisation’s founding. But the totally unrealistic jubilation it aroused among Indians is bound to come crashing down because the G-4 is a long way from achieving its goals. In fact, Germany, given its economic and political clout in Europe, has already become an honorary member of the UNSC on important issues in the shape of Give-5 plus one, the others being the original permanent members. There cannot be two opinions on the necessity and usefulness of a continuing dialogue at the highest level with the US administration. That President Obama took the time to meet Mr Modi, despite his packed schedule, mainly to reiterate the importance of setting climate amelioration targets, implies Washington’s interest in getting closer to New Delhi. Closer relations with the US were also illustrated by the three-way meeting of American, Japanese and Indian foreign ministers to declare their adherence to free access to the seas in Asian waters close to China, Japan and the Philippines, among other nations. China claims most of the South China and East China seas and is building islands on reefs for future military purposes, much to the anger of Manila and the annoyance of the US. The significance of the joint declaration for New Delhi is that, despite Beijing’s sensitivities, India has stood up to be counted. Although the big order for US military aircraft prior to Mr Modi’s trip was a sweetener, transfer of technology remains a work in progress in a familiar process. Every new technology has to be teased out of the giants of industry after a nod from the administration. Indeed, the anger that greeted the state visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping on official Chinese outfits hacking US commercial sites for stealing technology secrets is an indication of how much Washington cares for leadership in world technology. The jury is still out on the effectiveness of the technology agreement signed between the two countries. China’s rise as a major power has inevitably brought India and the US closer, with the US viewing New Delhi as something of a counterweight, together with countries such as Japan and Australia. Greater military cooperation among the four countries has been initiated in the shape of joint military exercises and exchange of sensitive information. For herself, India has to balance this with a many-sided dialogue with China. The Modi administration has already changed the signposts from being a balancing power to becoming a leading power. Mr Modi’s foray into the world’s technology capital, California, was of a different order. He has always tried to distinguish himself from other world leaders by his partiality for new technology not only to promote himself and seek a one-way communication with the people, but also to employ it in governance. In other words, his encounter with Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook headquarters with a staged emotional moment was not merely an exercise in self-promotion, but also an advertisement for how far-seeing a leader he was. In the process, he received a bagful of encomiums from the tech fraternity, especially those of Indian origin who had successfully climbed the ladder. Wiring 500 Indian railway stations with Google’s help and additional money for Indian startups are all to the good. To the extent Mr Modi can induce greater numbers of Indians to return home in a new and more hospitable tech environment, it would help the country’s modernisation. But despite the plaudits the Prime Minister wins abroad, his major tasks, particularly in piloting necessary reforms, lie at home. In that perspective, Mr Modi’s bashing of domestic opposition on foreign soil is particularly unfortunate. If he and his Bharatiya Janata Party seek to grind the Congress and other parties into dust, how can he hope to receive their support in Parliament and the country for his reform measures? The country is familiar with the sorry record of the land reform legislation he had to withdraw and later scrap. And his goods and services tax is still languishing. Mr Modi will soon get into the partisan mode of electioneering for the Bihar Assembly elections as he has done for earlier state elections. Opposition-bashing, rather than consensus-building, will again come to the fore. The Prime Minister is seeking to improve the BJP’s numbers in the Rajya Sabha, an objective he cannot achieve before 2017. In the process, he will make life harder for his administration and the BJP to take the country forward. The Prime Minister has still to find a new golden mean to promote himself, with bear hugs or otherwise, and his party’s divisive Hindutva philosophy with successfully running a multi-religious and multi-ethnic country.