Pathetic !

 

THOUGH officially nobody in India would like to state that, it is obvious that the attempts of United States President Mr. Donald Trump look clearly pathetic trying to tell the world that he is “very close to India ... very close to the Prime Minister of India ... We have a very good relationship ...”. Such mutterings by Mr. Trump in the past few weeks point to an unstable personality that Destiny placed in a key position. Of course, even as Mr. Trump wished him a ‘Happy Birthday To You My Friend Narendra Modi’, Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi, too, reciprocated by a little warmer than a formal response. For, as the whole world wished Mr. Modi a ‘Happy Birthday’, Mr. Modi did not want any bad blood.

 

Therefore, he reciprocated Mr. Trump’s message with some warmth. However, inwardly, Mr. Modi is all cautious and is calibrating his response to the US President very carefully (not letting out a single loose word or emotion). He is shrewd enough to weigh the American leader’s somersaulting in appropriate terms. Inwardly, Mr. Modi must be having a wry smile to himself -- suggesting how shallow the US President has been in his behaviour of late. Mr. Modi’s 75th birthday did offer Mr. Trump a good chance to make up to an extent the damage caused to American relations with India by his own diatribes. So, the Prime Minister of a “dead economy” suddenly became Mr. Donald Trump’s “friend” who is “very close to India”. Mr. Modi, of course, did not mind -- since it was not he who initiated a damage to bilateral ties.

 

He just decided to go along -- mostly wordlessly. That is the beauty of Mr. Modi’s maturity as a world leader who knows well how uncertain diplomatic waters often are. Trade talks between US and India have begun. Expectations, too, are being expressed that in the next few weeks, the tariff issues, too, would get sorted out. Though nothing can be predicted correctly, there are possibilities that both the countries would make serious efforts to mend matters and move on. For India’s part, however, serious efforts would be needed to overlook the acidic treatment some close associates of Mr. Trump gave to India. With an eye on long-term gains, India will certainly overlook the American stupidity in the past few weeks. But obvious it is that New Delhi will always carry a grudge -- mostly unspoken -- about the crudeness of the US President’s assertions about India. It is clear that no personal angle should interrupt goodness of bilateral ties in the international realpolitik.

 

Yet, given the manner in which Mr. Trump behaved in the past few weeks, India has every justification for its strong reservations about the American intentions -- no matter the assertion of “Narendra Modi my friend” ... ! The fact that Mr. Trump chose to make that statement from England in the presence of British Prime Minister Mr. Keir Starmer, shows that he wanted the world to become a witness to his goodwill for India. Of course, anybody can see through such a shallow showmanship, all right. Yet, Mr. Trump did not mind any such interpretation -- and made the statement assertively, leaving it to India to decide how to respond. But there is no doubt that Mr. Trump proved to be a not so good a diplomatic somersaulter -- particularly against a seasoned player like Mr. Narendra Modi. As the two countries grapple with trade issues, relationship would limp back to (a new) normal.

 

The old warmth is not likely to return. The trust deficit would be rather too wide to be bridged easily. So bad did the situation look at one point that the talks started doing the round that a new world order is about to emerge. It is this possibility that Mr. Donald Trump found dangerous to American interest. Hence his somersaulting. Of course, he may not learn any lesson voluntarily. It would be only a compulsion for him.