As the world grieves over Notre Dame, Modi missing in action

PM Modi believes he has brought India to the world’s attention, and so he should have known better than staying silent on Notre Dame fire tragedy.

A file photo of French President Emmanual Macron with PM Modi | Twitter | @narendramodi

Donald Trump, Angela Merkel and Theresa May. Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton. Even Iran’s foreign minister Javad Zarif. The world’s leaders are mourning the tragedy of the fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, except for one glaring omission: Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The prime minister’s Twitter handle has absolutely no mention of Modi’s feelings and emotions as he watched the iconic structure burn, its spire collapse on Monday evening. Certainly, he should have sent a message to French president Emmanuel Macron and not only because India is entering into a defence relationship with France with the purchase of 36 Rafale aircraft.

Most of the money has already been paid upfront. But no country wants a transactional relationship. The French are aghast beyond measure that their beloved Notre Dame has been damaged – they call it “the Lady of Paris” — and friends are known to make their concern public when tragedy befalls the family.

There’s another reason why Modi should have known better and commented on the Notre Dame fire tragedy. This is because he believes that over the last five years, he is the one who has brought India, front and centre, to the world’s attention.

Just watch the first few minutes of his interview with DD News and Rajya Sabha TV Monday and you’ll see:

“India has carved her place in the world in the last five years,” Modi said in the interview. “Pehle hum darshak the, ab hum player hain (earlier we were in the audience, now we are players in the game),” he said. And the world is acknowledging that fact, he added.

Modi went on: Earlier, it was a bipolar world. Now we are interconnected and dependent. We cannot afford to be isolated.

Certainly, Modi’s foreign policy learning curve has been incredibly steep in the last five years. When he became the prime minister, and sought to up-end some of the rules of the game – speaking in Hindi, telling foreign service probationers that strategic thinking is not about how to place your fork and knife – the media, including those from Lutyens Delhi, clapped.

As he ends this term, the upending has also taken new forms that aren’t particularly wholesome. For example, his embrace of Russian president Vladimir Putin, who has been wily enough to award the PM last week Russia’s highest civilian honour, the Order of St Andrew the Apostle.

Nothing wrong with that, per se. Awards are wonderful. We all love them and Russia is an old and trusted friend. More recently, Moscow has returned to the top of Indian arms imports, after ceding that space to the US the last couple of years. Putin probably realises that Modi and US president Donald Trump don’t particularly get along, so he’s not averse to flattering the Indian prime minister to persuade him to see that Russian arms are the best.

Certainly, the Americans aren’t offering India an equivalent of the Russian S-400 air defence system and may still impose sanctions. But Modi’s predecessors, since the end of the Cold War – PV Narasimha Rao, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Manmohan Singh – learnt the art of intelligently managing both old ally and new friend, both Russia and America, not dumping one for the other because they didn’t like or get along with the leaders in those countries.

With Modi, it’s different. He and Trump don’t really get along. Tensions between India and the US have risen sharply in the last year, including those related to trade, but not just trade.

Putin sees that and reciprocates Modi’s hug even more warmly.

Meanwhile, Putin and Chinese president Xi Jinping are getting into a closer and closer embrace. Let’s not forget that India and China aren’t the best of friends, despite the Wuhan meeting, and the only country which can still persuade Beijing to fall in line is the US, not Russia.

It’s a bad world out there and India has survived these past several decades because of its ability to skilfully side-step, evade and feint a pass or two. Remember that after the Balakot strikes and Pakistan’s counter-strikes, the world pressed both India and Pakistan to de-escalate, de-escalate, de-escalate.

Pakistan was happy to do so because it had Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman in its custody. India’s message of striking deeply into Pakistan meant that Modi had called Rawalpindi’s nuclear bluff. But both countries believe they won this particular battle. Pakistan definitely believes the world will continue its engagement with it, if only to keep up the message of de-escalation.

In six weeks, India’s general elections election will be over. Whether or not Modi comes back to power, India will have to pick up the threads with the world again.

Meanwhile, and more immediately, Modi could send a message to France on the Notre Dame tragedy when he returns from his election campaign in Odisha and elsewhere. The French may not care that much because they are in collective mourning. Modi’s message, in fact, would be a salve to all Indians who believe it’s important to reach out to a grieving friend.