FOREIGN ENVOYS IN INDIA & MODI

Envoys posted in India rate Narendra Modi highly. By A.B.Mahapatra (2 October 2013) New Delhi: Ronald Reagan. Deng Xiaoping. Vladimir Putin. Barack Obama. Mohammed Mahathir. These are the names that Narendra Modi is being associated with by resident foreign diplomats since the Gujarat strongman’s spectacular rise over the past year.They proclaim that he will make India a different order. On the day he is elected prime minister, China and Pakistan will cease their provocations.Following Modi’s massively successful public rally in North West Delhi on Sunday, 29 September, most of the foreign missions called in their translation staff early to work on Monday. Modi’s speech was translated in real-time and its contents examined with forensic intensity, analyzed and transmitted to the world capitals with record promptitude.The crowds at the rally numbering in excess of 1.5 lac with a majority in the age group of 18-28 with who the Gujarat chief minister magically connects outrightly bedazzled the diplomatic corps.Indeed, the deputy chief of mission of an ASEAN (Association of South-East Asian Nations) state compared Modi to Anna Hazare in the sterling capacity of the Gujarat chief minister and the Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate to pull capacity crowds to his gatherings. “I wanted to see the man so that in future I would be able to introduce him to my leaders but I could only make my way to the (rally) ground after 40 minutes of jostling,” the awed diplomat remarked. “I had seen only a big gathering during the Anna Hazare movement.Now, it is the turn of Modi who has surpassed all previous counts. I still cannot get over my surprise about the success of the Sunday rally and the strength of Modi.” A raised placard at the rally read, “Modi is India,” which would not in normal course impress a diplomat. Diplomats, skeptical professionals who are engaged in a competitive reassessment of Modi, and give him, on the whole, flying marks. But perplexities remain about Narendra Modi’s worldview, and the diplomatic community is also in two minds whether to work with him now or await the 2014 election results, and it is not an easy choice.The danger with the second option is pointedly expressed by a Scandinavian envoy, who says, "If I wait till that period (the poll outcome), then I may lose my status as a top-ranking diplomat. Because in my country, a diplomat is often expected to tell untold things.India is a difficult country. But at the same time the Gujarat chief minister is decisive, clear-thinking, and distinctive from the rest, and that he would restore order at the fastest possible pace. Some diplomats even compare him to Deng Xiaoping and the Malaysian leader, Mohammad Mahathir. A Russian envoy thought Modi to be in the likeness of Vladimir Putin, the rising star of world politics, who has upstaged Barack Obama on the Syria crisis and beyond. Like the Russian strongman. Other diplomats compare him to Ronald Reagan, since Modi would find the situation on becoming prime minister to be rather similar to when the (former) American president entered office in 1980. The morale of the United States then had touched rock-bottom. Modi also carries traits of Obama, who defeated his own party’s redoubtable candidates before entering into combat with the opposition to claim the presidency. Modi will soon have an opportunity to bend America to his will. The United States will be out of Afghanistan next year, around the same time that Modi will assume power, if voted. America can only trust India in the region.Thus, denying a visa to Modi will harm American interests in the region, along which lines some Republicans have already started pressurizing the Obama administration for a rethink. So far, the United Kingdom and China had taken the lead to come to terms with Modi.Modi would pursue his own policies with vigour. There would be strong emphasis on the economy alongside a robust military-led foreign policy. “You will see that Chinese incursions and Pakistani border raids will automatically stop as soon as Modi assumes power,” remarked a Western diplomat. “You need not do anything. If the enemy can read the situation in the air, its behavior will change; otherwise its own survival will be at stake. This is history.” If Chinese or Pakistani actions persist, then one can be assured that India would deliver a decisive response, no matter that both states are nuclear powers.The diplomatic understanding is that this might open a two-front scenario but India will gain the upper hand regardless.All in all, Modi will transform India into a sort of great power unimaginable at or since independence