MODI IN US: VENI, VIDI, BUT VICI?

One must never visit America for the first time.

Jawaharlal Nehru summed up his misgivings about his first visit to the USA in 1949.

The socialist in Nehru, the Economic Times informs, was never given in to the ostentatious display of wealth in that country.

1949 is not 2014. And Narendra Modi is no Nehru.

Nehru assiduously cultivated the image of a sophisticated person.

Modi is the quintessential sophist.

He reasons with clever arguments, though his critics say some of his arguments are false.

All that is besides the point.

Modi is the Prime Minister of India. For good or bad. He was elected with a clear majority.

He told America he was representing 1.25 billion Indians.

Nearly that many Indians sat in front of their television sets and watched him take his stand on a revolving pedestal at the Madison Square Garden in mid-town Manhattan on Sunday, September 28, 2014.

As he entered the innards of The Garden, the leader of over a billion people reduced himself to the colossal status of being one of a mere, dozen-odd people to have been the cynosure of all at the venue. Like Muhammad Ali, the Beatles, Elvis Presley, Elton John, to name a few. Modi is the only international politician among them.

Incidentally, if The Garden is real home to any one celebrity, it is the dog. A pedigree dog at that. The Garden has hosted, without interruption every year, the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, since 1877.  Millions watch the two-day show across America, as Fox Terriers vie with the Pekinese, the Clumber Spaniel, the Beagle, etc, for the coveted to prize. For two days this February, all American attention was on a Wire Fox Terrier which eventually ran away with the top prize.

On Sunday, September 28, Modi was the centre of attraction at The Garden. Those who watched him broadly fall into four categories.

The tribe of Indian Americans who think they are influential enough to influence American foreign policy and hoping that Modi will help them become more influential.

The Indian media contingent which though sad that Modi gave two hoots to them and did not take them on his plane had no option but to cover every move of Modi who happens to be the highest TRP grosser in India.

A battery of analysts from both Democratic and Republican parties who were monitoring Modi closely, awed at the temerity of the man to enter America by ensuring that his position as the head of the world’s largest democracy was enough to get him a visa denied him for his alleged manhandling of the 2002 communal riots in Gujarat.

The last group, of course, was the Indian population waiting to see how Modi would sell their dreams to the Americans.

Modi looked quite relaxed for the first time during the visit, with around 20,000 fawning faces around him. At the United Nations, as he emulated Atal Behari Vajpayee and PV Narasimha Rao and addressed the general assembly in Hindi – even though he repeatedly mis-pronounced a couple of words – he was not in his element. Perhaps, even a bit nervous. But not at The Gardens. Certainly not.

Here he was the seller of dreams, the purveyor of India’s fate, the charmer of the Americans, the quintessential world leader desperate, if at all, to show America how wrong it was to deny him the visa because of some vague human rights violations some years ago.

Unfortunately, he was the victim of sheer time. Everything and anything that he had to say in praise of India came with a déjà vu feeling attacheed. Vivekananda had talked about it over a century ago.  Every Prime Minister who preceded Modi to the USA had said the same thing. Modi had no new insight to offer about India’s past glory.

He did not have much of a list of accomplishments of his government. But that was expected as his government is just over a 100 days old. But he could not have shared that truth with the audience. Why come across as a forthright and honest leader when he could take credit for the success of the Mission to Mars? He did so.

The Bharatiya Janata Party and parent Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh activists left no stone unturned in their attempts to ensure nothing but naked admiration for Modi during his visit. The Gujaratis were present in full strength. There were so many Gujaratis in New York this Sunday that the presence of a controversial industrialist, also a Gujarati and who is said to be close to Modi, went literally unnoticed.

It is this segment of America – the Indian American minority – that Modi focused on. He congratulated them for their sacrifices. A couple of eye brows went up. Sacrifice? They were the brain drain generation with bitter memories of India. He congratulated them for ploughing back money to their mother country. The audience beamed, even though the fact is real remittances back to India from abroad come not from the Indians in American but from that vast segment of the Indian population which works for daily wages in inhuman conditions in over a 100 countries.

Modi wanted the Indian Americans to come home. Back to India. The cheers were there, but a bit subdued.

What else was there to tell the audience? Could he have talked about his economic or social or cultural vision? That would have led to the opening of the Pandorrah’s Box. Could he have talked about the problems India is facing? That would dampen any spirit the Indians Americans may have left for returning home. So, no go. Could he have talked about terrorism in India? That would have opened the biggest Pandorrrah’s Box and all the accompanying talk of communalism, riots, killings, 2002, etc, etc.

Cornered thus, Modi put on his best face in front of a live television audience watched by millions across the world. He became what he does best. The talker. The talkative man. And he talked about his pet subject – the 2014 electoral result in India – in his pet manner as a rallying politician. He reminisced. And reminisced. And reminisced.

The audience at The Gardens were still all smiles. As people with decent civic sense they heard him in peace, clapped at the right moments and bid him a grand farewell at the end of his address.

I was not born when Nehru went to America. But I did accompany Vajpayee. This Sunday, I was watching Modi on television. You know what struck me? Some leaders are events in themselves. Some need an event to make them leaders.