Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump met after a gap of 16 months. Trump applauded Modi as an “angel”.
The US President said, “Have a look at this man. ..He’s the most beautiful looking man. He looks so nice, like an angel, but actually he’s tough…he is a killer….But he looks so good. So, he gets you by surprise … He’s as tough as they come, He’s a tough trader, and he loves the Indian people, but he also loves the USA. We had ‘Howdy Modi’ in Houston.”
Trump said, he was committed to defending India. He said, “If anybody attacks that man, we’re going to be there now,..I think India plays a big role in everything. As long as he (Modi) is the leader. I cannot say about others. ”
Modi welcomed the US-Iran peace deal. At the same time, he minced no words in telling the US President that the manner in which Indian seafarers were killed on high seas near Oman was highly objectionable. Modi said, all nations, whether big or strong, must abide by international laws.
In his remarks, Trump hoped that the India-US trade deal will be finalized soon.
Why did Trump say, Modi is cool and nice and at the same time a tough negotiator?
He knows he made objectionable remarks about Modi and India in the past, but the Indian Prime Minister kept his cool and dealt with him in a dignified manner.
In recent months, many in India had been raising questions about the personal chemistry between Trump and Modi. These leaders had questioned Modi’s silence on Trump’s remarks as his weakness.
Such leaders may now understand whether it was proper on Modi’s part to engage in a verbal match with Trump in order to garner praise? Or, whether he should have focused on India’s interests by exercising patience?
As far as Trump is concerned, he spares no one. He made nasty remarks about his best friend Israeli PM Netanyahu. He cracked jokes about French President Macron. He used questionable words about Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Putin.
Trump does not believe in diplomatic niceties. There is a different method of engaging with him.
To exercise patience is not to surrender.
To flatter is to surrender. Those who know Modi well can say with conviction that he does not have the habit to flatter anybody.
Modi showed, he knows how to keep his cool. He did not mince words while speaking.
A few words about the G7 summit in France. Those who question India’s foreign policy of late, must know that India was given full access to the G7 summit this time. “Full access” means Prime Minister Modi sat with top leaders and he was part of the real power room. India was present in every room and in every discussion.
It was host France which gave India full access to the G7 summit. The US and other G7 members supported this.
Modi was neither an observer, nor an outsider. He was part of the real decision making process.
Normally G7 members are given partial access, but this time India got unlimited access.
For the G7 group, India was a preferred nation. This was the reason why some of those who were reporting the summit said it seemed to be a G8 summit.
Uddhav : Shantata, Defection Chalu Aahe!
After the split in Trinamool Congress, it is now the turn of Shiv Sena (UBT). Six out of its 9 Lok Sabha members are ready to jump ship and join Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena.
There are reports that these six MPs have told Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla of their intention to leave the party and join Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena.
Since two-third members have revolted, the anti-defection law shall not apply. None of these six rebel MPs have come out in the open and this is fuelling Uddhav Thackeray’s tension.
This is not the first time that defections of MPs and MLAs have taken place. This is also not the first time that central agencies were used and money was offered to jump ship.
There was a time when Congress was the master of the art of defections.
Bhajan Lal of Haryana defected with his entire group of MLAs from Janata Party and became the chief minister. Ajit Jogi of Chhattisgarh carried out defection of MLAs and joined a new party.
After Indira Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi lost the 1977 Lok Sabha elections, Sanjay Gandhi engineered the split in the ruling Janata Party two years later and propped up Chaudhary Charan Singh as Prime Minister. Soon after, the rug was pulled from under his feet.
In 1990, Congress under Rajiv Gandhi played the main role in splitting V.P. Singh’s Janata Dal. He installed Chandra Shekhar as Prime Minister for four months, before the party withdrew support and Chandra Shekhar had to resign.
The difference this time is, BJP is doing this work with full vigour and in a scientific and planned manner.
BJP has mastered the art of winning elections and forming governments, while leaders like Rahul Gandhi, Uddhav Thackeray, Mamata Banerjee are treading the traditional path. They have the compulsion of promoting dynastic succession.
Some of these leaders consider it beneath their dignity to meet their own MLAs and MPs. They consider it an insult to listen to them.
For them, politics is not a full-time job. They need holidays for rest and recreation. That is why leaders in these parties have become restless and BJP is taking full advantage of this restlessness.
Leaders of parties that are facing splits are busy blaming the ED and CBI. In their spare time, they make reels for social media, while their MPs and MLAs are jumping ship. There is no treatment for this malady.
After Mamata, Uddhav, will it be Akhilesh’s turn?
After Bengal and Maharashtra, reports are coming from Uttar Pradesh about the possibility of some MPs going to leave Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party.
The first cannon was fired by state minister Om Prakash Rajbhar who said, senior SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav is leading a group of rebel MPs to join NDA.
UP deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya pitched in, saying 20 to 25 SP MPs are ready to quit their party, but BJP is yet to open its doors for them.
Akhilesh Yadav scotched all such speculations as baseless.
Akhilesh does not have the right to speak about Maurya. It was Akhilesh who had been prodding Maurya several times in the past to break away from BJP with 100 MLAs and topple Yogi Adityanath’s government. He had even offered the post of chief minister to Maurya.
Maurya has now squared up.
It may be difficult to trust the claims of Maurya and Rajbhar about the revolt that is going to take place, but did anybody ever dream about 64 out of 78 TMC MLAs and 20 TMC MPs going to quit Mamata Banerjee’s party within a span of one month ?
Mamata was confident till the last moment that her MPs and MLAs will not revolt.
Uddhav Thackeray had been claiming till Tuesday night that his MPs have taken oath in front of him, but soon after taking the vow, they sat in a private plane and their letter landed in Lok Sabha Speaker’s office.
Looking from this perspective, one can only say, anything can happen.