Aligarh: On 17 September, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi turns 71, it will be a day which scores of Modi’s fans across the universe, supporters in his party and followers cutting across political hue and colour eagerly await, to wish him and pray for his well-being. Over the years, he has proved his mantle to be a visionary and charismatic statesman who dreams for the masses. Over the years, he has turned a role model for all other countries to follow his leadership qualities.
This is a fact which remains undeniable and even his detractors have to acknowledge. His public image shines more to be adjudged as the most popular among the top 13 global leaders in a recent survey by the Morning Consult.
While his rating clocked as high as 70% that crowned him as the tallest leader, his nearest competitor Mexican president Andres Manuel López Obrador could score only 64%, who was followed by Italian PM Mario Draghi (63%), German Chancellor Angela Merkel (52%), US President Joe Biden (48%), Australian PM Scott Morrison (48%), Canadian PM Trudeau (45%), UK PM Boris Johnson (41%), Brazilian President Jaire Bolsonaro (39%), South Korean President Moon Jae-In (38%), Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez (35%), French Premier Emanuel Macron (34%) and Japanese PM Yoshihide Suga (25%).
No doubt, on 24 September when Modi visits the US for a Quad summit, he is likely to meet Biden for bilateral talks on subjects including Afghanistan for the first time after Biden rose to presidency. There are many reasons why Modi has achieved globally what many other Indian PMs failed to acquire. One of them is universal farsightedness for which he is credited with. He can foresee the challenges lying ahead and has solutions ready for them. This quality not only made him different from his predecessors but puts him ahead of other top world leaders.
Take the case of Covid-19 pandemic which brought the world to a standstill last year. Braving the criticism of the Opposition parties at home, Modi emerged as a global messiah by reaching out to other countries with vaccines while ensuring the flow in vaccine supply to the Indians equally. If this was not enough, he turned health into a key agenda at the BRICS summit which he chaired on 9 September. He “stressed the need for accelerating ‘buildback’ by enhancing speed and accessibility of vaccination, creating ‘resilience’ by diversifying pharma and vaccine production capacities beyond the developed world”.
Another major success of Modi as the host of the BRICS Summit was his affirmation in presence of Chinese premier Xi Jinping about the global stand against terrorism and the unprecedented situation that has unfolded in Afghanistan dramatically following the withdrawal of troops by the US. In the wake of the stand of the Communist China, which has jumped to hobnob with the Taliban in league with Pakistan to expand its presence in Afghanistan not only for commercial interests but also for secret strategic purposes, a development that can pose a serious threat to India, Modi has been able to tie smartly four other countries to the New Delhi Declaration which was adopted unanimously by the heads of the five member states at the end of the event.
The joint resolution underlined, “We follow with concern the latest developments in Afghanistan. We call for refraining from violence and settling the situation by peaceful means. We stress the need to contribute to fostering an inclusive intra-Afghan dialogue so as to ensure stability, civil peace, law and order in the country. We condemn in the strongest terms the terrorist attacks near the Hamid Karzai Kabul International Airport that resulted in a large number of deaths and injuries. We underscore the priority of fighting terrorism, including preventing attempts by terrorist organizations to use Afghan territory as terrorist sanctuary and to carry out attacks against other countries, as well as drug trade within Afghanistan. We emphasise the need to address the humanitarian situation and to uphold human rights, including those of women, children and minorities.”
Significantly, it also came a day after Russia and India discussed coordination among themselves on Afghanistan at the NSA level talks in New Delhi. The New Delhi declaration also carries a veiled yet strong warning from Modi to Pakistan, which is not part of BRICS but has allied to China in recent years and has been chiefly responsible for overthrowing a democratically elected and India-friendly government in Afghanistan by supporting a terrorist outfit like Taliban militarily.
If China, at the behest of Pakistan, dares to play any mischief from Afghanistan targeting India in future, Modi and leaders of the three other nations would have every right to pull up Xi Jinping for violation of the agreement, which happened among themselves, to corner Pakistan. And that would certainly not be a good experience for either Beijing or Islamabad.
(The author is Professor and Founder Chairman, Centre for Narendra Modi Studies {CNMS}, Aligarh. He may be contacted at profjasimmd@gmail.com)