CAA-NRC: Narendra Modi’s dreams of an image as global statesman and good days for India are history:

Love for Modi’s global hug diplomacy is cold as India mourns its dead in NRC-CAA protests :-

Anti CAA Protesters 

Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, has a tenderly nurtured dream: that of being feted at the global high table and being in the league of global leaders.

But following the recent flawed and contentious, nay, bigoted decisions taken by him, that dream is now reduced to ashes.

CAA Protest

Modi’s frenetic globe-trotting is evident from the data published by the Hindu Business Line. Modi has made 92 trips to 57 countries since May 2014. The joke in South Block was that the late BJP leader Sushma Swaraj, Modi’s External Affairs Minister, was not allowed to set foot on foreign soil.

Ever since the US denied him a visa, post the 2002 riots in Gujarat, Modi, who has a very thin skin about his image, felt that redemption would lie in him being globally feted. This explains what is called his “hug diplomacy” -- bear hugs to foreign leaders in sight of the cameras.

CAA Protester

Modi's global reputation dream

Modi’s desperate need for global embrace was evident in his needy name dropping of former US President Barack Obama even in his interview with actor Akshay Kumar. The infamous Modi monogram suit which he wore was to greet Obama were mocked internationally.

Yet in his second term we have had an important Democratic Party leader Elizabeth Warren, who is running for president, say: “Efforts to silence Pramila are deeply troubling. The US and India have an important partnership, but our partnership can only succeed if it is rooted in honest dialogue and shared respect for religious pluralism, democracy and human rights.”

This very public rebuke happened when Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar backed out of meeting with the US House Foreign Affairs Committee after India tried to lay down terms asking that Pramila Jayapal, an elected official, who has raised the crackdown in Kashmir, not be part of the meeting. The US reacted fairly saying India could not dictate the composition of the committee.

Effectively, what Modi has done is put all of India’s eggs in the Republican Party basket and if the Democratic Party wins the presidency, India will face repercussions. The Democrats have a long memory and are unlikely to forget this institutional snub.

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