Predictably, the Prime Minister’s visit to the US has raised the hackles of those who are anyway arrayed against Narendra Modi. For the Gandhis-led Congress there is not a thing in the world that Modi can do right. The Gandhis are bad losers. They must nitpick even if it displays their personal pique and anger at being upstaged by a mere ‘chaiwalla’. While other critics have couched their comments in a restrained language, it is the Congress spokespersons who have gone completely overboard in trying to rubbish the PM’s visit.
Anand Sharma, the long-time 10 Janpath courtier and, formally, the deputy leader of the Congress Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, allowed the uncouth and uncivilised in him to come to the surface in his bid to abuse Modi. He accused Modi of dragging the PM’s office to the gutter. He questioned the claim by Modi that he sold tea as a young boy at a wayside railway station in Gujarat, insisting that the family was relatively well-off. He challenged Modi to prove that his mother washed dishes to support her family.
Modi, it may be recalled, had got emotional when asked by Mark Zuckerberg at the town hall meeting at the Facebook campus in San Jose, California, about his difficult childhood. Worse, Sharma taunted Modi for not letting his mother stay with him in the Prime Minister’s official residence, if he was really so close to her as claimed. Such pettiness is unbecoming of someone who claims to speak for a national party. But when the party bosses themselves are so full of venom, their underlings would vie with one another to out-abuse the target of their boss’s ire. No doubt it is always hard to quantify the gains of any prime ministerial visit. But unless there is a specific treaty or an agreement which promises immediate gains for the nation, such visits are essentially about incremental diplomacy, building people-to-people, leader-to-leader contacts and creating a conducive environment for growing bilateral relationship in diverse spheres, including trade and commerce, defence and strategic affairs etc.
In the case of Modi, where he scores and causes so much heartburn among his visceral critics is his instant connect with the considerable non-resident Indian communities in the host nations. The fact that he is being accorded the rock star status by a section of the media is because the NRIs in whichever country he visits spread the proverbial red carpet for him. Nostalgia, national pride, long-distance patriotism all combine to make the NRIs swoon over the PM who promises to set things right in the country of their origin. Yes, it helps that he is a great communicator, great orator.
But the host country’s leadership too appreciates the growing potential of India as a market of a billion-plus people, a market that can absorb their weapons, technology and other goods and services which are required by a major developing economy. And Modi being a consummate salesman for India knows how to play the game to impress whoever he comes in touch with on his foreign sojourns. For instance, lining up the leaders of Japan, Germany and Brazil for broadening the membership of the UN Security Council was a clever idea. Likewise, rooting against all forms of terrorism was bound to evoke praise given that the western countries too are gripped by the fear of the Islam-centric extremism as are, increasingly the Islamic monarchies of West Asia.
Again, criticism that his visit to Silicon Valley was a mere PR exercise ignores the ever-increasing role information technology has come to play in governance delivery. Be it the Aadhaar-linked subsidies or public service messaging, mobile phones have come handy for various public and private institutions. The Indian community in California has contributed immensely to the new developments in the tech industry. Modi did well to personally acknowledge its role as also to enlist its help in facilitating good governance at home. Harnessing the power of IT through the ubiquitous cell phones can change the face of India, especially as it would guarantee better delivery of public services. In short, those questioning the cost-effectiveness of Modi’s foreign visits display complete ignorance of modern diplomacy and international relations.
