Prime Minister in Poland: Is Modi resorting to his old tricks?

This is part of his exercise to repair his fading image. He and his companions are not ready to accept that Indians have not given him the majority in Parliament and compelled him to give some space to the opposition parties. The 2024 has given a clear mandate that the INDIA alliance under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi will have a say in governing the country

One thing is clear: Prime Minister Modi and his team are not ready to accept people’s verdicts. Instead of learning from the failures, the prime minister and his crowd are trying to manipulate the 2024 mandate. They want to recover the image of the prime minister by thrusting upon the narrative that he still commands people’s trust. Will this attempt succeed?

The latest example is his speech in Poland. He ridiculed his predecessors for “keeping distance from other countries." The statement was not only flawed but laden with the malicious intent of scorning previous prime ministers of the country, including stalwarts like Jawaharlal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi, and Atal Bihari Vajpayee. It must be unintended, but the fact remains that he has done great harm to Indian diplomacy. Paraphrasing his statement only reveals that he was dismissing the policy of non-aligned movement. Is it not trivializing a serious discourse on international relations? Indeed, his inference has not been drawn from any serious reading of world affairs. Nor has it been inspired by the intent of promoting good relations with different countries.

India has always been in excellent relations with most Eastern European countries. The ties have not originated during the tenure of Prime Minister Modi. He also could be credited with nurturing it. He needs to relook at his statement that, after four decades, any Indian prime minister is visiting Poland. Does it not include his 10 years in power? He is visiting the country in his third term, and instead of being apologetic, he is highlighting the lapse of Indian diplomacy. Is it good diplomacy?

The roots of Indian relations with smaller and strategically powerless countries are the non-aligned movement. We owe it to Jawaharlal Nehru, who not only articulated the idea of equal distance from two superpowers, the USA and the USSR, but also made it a movement. We must also remember that the policy of non-aligned movement was the extension of the foreign policy the Congress formulated in the 1930s. The policy was based on the ideology of the freedom struggle. Non-violence, peaceful coexistence, and self-determination were essential parts of this ideology, and the philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi was its inspiration. The present generation must also know that great socialist leader Dr. Rammanohar Lohia, under the leadership of Nehru, prepared the first document on the foreign policy of India Nehru was then the Congress president, and Dr. Lohia was his foreign affairs secretary. This document became the basis of the foreign policy of independent India. Most of our foreign policy including our stance on Palestine and other issues, came into existence during our struggle against imperial rule. It was the time when fascism was growing and the world was threatened with the devastation from wars. The Indian National Congress explicitly advocated for non-violence and peace. The credit goes to Nehru, who stood firmly against fascism and declared his support for democracy and freedom. Unlike his many contemporaries, including Subhash Chandra Bose, he had no confusion that fascism was a dangerous ideology for mankind and there could not be any truck with it.

The Poland-India relationship in modern times could be traced to the Polish interest in Indology in the nineteenth century. India played an important role in the political regeneration of post-World War Europe, Asia, and Africa. It recognized Poland in 1954, and Prime Minister Nehru visited Poland in 1955. Modi also trivialized the issue of bilateral visits. After Nehru, Prime Minister Morarji Desai visited the country in 1979. President Pratibha Patil visited the country in 2009 and Vice President Hamid Ansari in 2017. Apart from these visits, the cabinet and other ministers, including Pranab Mukherji, visited the country. Were these visits not important?

The pro-Modi has highlighted mantras of Upanishads engraved on the wall of Warsaw University Library. The pictures have also gone viral on social media. Is it an achievement of Prime Minister Modi? The pride expressed by the saffron brigade is part of the exercise aimed at appropriating the civilizational achievement of the country. A careful examination of the saffron ideology reveals that it does not subscribe to what has been said in Upanishads. The sectarianism of the Hindutva is hardly consonant with the philosophy of the Upanishads. How could the Hindutva proponents associate them with the philosophy of Vasudhaiva Kutumbkum (The world is family)?

Did the event at which Prime Minister Modi ventured to give this statement display any better picture of India by chanting “Modi” “Modi’? Who were these people? Was the chanting crowd part of the Indian diaspora?

The Prime Minister has revived the old stunts he had begun to use soon after his arrival in 2014 as the prime minister of India. This is part of his exercise to repair his fading image. He and his companions are not ready to accept that Indians have not given him the majority in Parliament and compelled him to give some space to the opposition parties. The 2024 has given a clear mandate that the INDIA alliance under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi will have a say in governing the country. Instead of addressing the people’s concerns, he and his supporters are resorting to techniques that have failed. His statement in Poland has all the distasteful gestures, including his assertion that he is destined to perform many important things for the country. He forgot that when Nehru went to Poland in 1955, in economic terms, he did not have much to offer. He had only the experience of freedom struggle and high civilisational values to offer to a country devastated by Nazis. Nehru founded the modern nation of India, and Modi redeemed his labor.

(The author is a senior journalist. He has experience of working with leading newspapers and electronic media including Deccan Herald, Sunday Guardian, Navbharat Times and Dainik Bhaskar. He writes on politics, society, environment and economy)