SO, UNITED States President Mr. Donald Trump has finally and officially begun his great U-turn by hailing Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi as his “friend and a great Prime Minister”. Taking a cautious approach, Mr. Modi, too, has responded in the most formal manner --leaving aside the old warmth that he often displayed -- calling the American leader “President Trump”. The world will never miss the difference in the tones of the two world leaders. While Mr. Trump is trying to make up and win what he called “lost” case, Mr. Modi responded for the first time in weeks by refusing to cross the rubicon of formality. The difference, we must assert, is spiritual. The US President is trying to make amends, but the Indian Prime Minister is just being formal -- to the extent that he just wants to indicate that he was never averse to gentlemanly connect. In other words, Mr. Narendra Modi communicated to Mr. Trump and to the world that he has not appreciated the undignified manner in which the US President has treated India in the past few weeks -- though India never gave in to the temptation of a tit-for-tat response.

 

Though to many this turn of events -- the U-turn and grieving for a “lost” friend in India etc etc -- may sound a slow return to normalcy of relations between US and India, there is no need to draw such hasty conclusions. For, Mr. Trump has caused much damage to the warmth that the two countries and leaders enjoyed until late and India, too, would take good time to recover from the uncouth American approach. True, India would try to be formal and calm and dignified which it has always been. But as the US leader made things go from bad to worse over the past some weeks, India felt the need to redefine its foreign policy nuances to make it much broader than ever. In that new calculus, every factor assumed an altogether different value and proportion in the changing consideration. This got reflected correctly in Mr. Modi’s formal response to Mr. Trump’s so-called reminder of old friendship.

 

f Mr. Trump got himself entrenched in a ‘super-power mode’ to browbeat India, Mr. Modi made quick alterations in his stance and approach in which the US was only one of the impediments to India’s effort to spread its trade-arena globally. So, in the past some time, what India did was to move around the US obstacle to create newer opportunities for itself in trade as well as strategic matrices. Hence Mr. Modi’s formal response to Mr. Trump hyped warmth that looked so terribly out of place in the given situation. Of course, India’s overall approach and conduct always showed that it would never act spoilsport in diplomacy -- a game which Mr. Trump was playing much to his own peril. So, when Mr. Trump was indulging in senseless diatribes, Mr. Modi chose to ever utter the word “Trump” in any of his public utterances, nor chose to pick up as many as four phone calls from the US President (as reported by international media).

 

This gentlemanly dignity has often characterised Mr. Modi’s diplomacy. That will continue even now. And if India’s relations with the US improve in the next some time, Mr. Modi’s ultimate sense of dignity would be the most critical factor in the restoration. Though there is no need to build castles in the air that the US may withdraw its tough tariff regime etc etc, it must be asserted that India has established a definitive edge over the American high-handedness by its calm and formal handling of the challenge.