Sadly Modi is no Putin or Thatcher in the making
If you no longer see that exaggerated swagger in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's steps and if you see stress lines on his face, it's not a sign of any impending crisis. It may well be a sign of political maturity, a quiet admission that governing India even with an absolute Lok Sabha majority is no easy task.
But has Modi lost a chance to model himself on a Vladimir Putin who has taken on the entire Western powers in Ukraine and Syria. Putin has has proved Russia can have its way and it's not a pushover.
Could Modi be a Margaret Thatcher if India was looking for a strong and nationalist leader who reshaped the course of history? Modi's two recent moves indicate the visible sign of change in his stance on both national and international issues, a sign that he can be weak and vulnerable.
A visible sign that he has no mettle to model himself on Russia's Putin and Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdogan who are capable of swimming against the international tide and yet keep their people's loyalty and support. One, the manner in which Modi has approached Congress's continued intransigence in Parliament. And two, his flip-flops in dealing with Pakistan. On both the issues he is unlikely to be rewarded despite his self-effacing new avatar.
Modi offered the olive branch to the Congress by inviting the party leaders, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, to seek cooperation inside the parliament to pass the Goods ans Services Tax (GST) Bill. His overtures have met with no success. In fact, Congress has spurned the extended hands, perhaps in belief that no-holds-barred confrontational politics will pay dividends for the beleaguered party in the long-run.
The Congress's shifting strategies in Parliament, changing its focus from one issue to another speak volumes about the thinking within the party. When Modi said that the repeated disruption of Parliament was a "matter of sorrow" and that "democracy can't function at the whims and fancies" of anyone and that many "pro-poor steps are stuck in Parliament", Sonia Gandhi retorted bluntly, "Let him say what he wants".
Rahul Gandhi has gone on an offensive inside and outside the Parliament sending a message that compromise and consensus are not on the table as far as the Congress's strategy is concerned. The end result is that the winter session of Parliament is on the verge of a complete wash out.
Modi's Pakistan stance has dented his image of a leader who had promised muscular, no-nonsense, pursuit of foreign policy in sharp contrast to what the UPA had done during its two-term in power. Modi obviously had not realised the demand and pressure of international diplomacy before enunciating his so-called muscular approach to Pakistan earlier. It's ironical that the Modi government hadn't even taken note of two Hurriyat Conference leaders, emissaries of the Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, holding talks with the Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit on a day when the India's foreign minister Sushma Swaraj made a statement on her visit to Islamabad in Parliament.
Modi has made a complete u-turn on his Pakistan file, denting his own cultivated image of a strong and nationalist leader that he had projected among the people and for which he got their support. Modi's soft and compromising stance vis-à-vis the Congress in Parliament and his strategy with respect to Pakistan bear testimony that he is vulnerable and that he can buckle under pressure.
It seems that Rahul Gandhi has seen and read Modi well and that's the reason he refuses to blink in the ongoing war of attrition in Parliament. It's no less clear that Pakistan also understood that Modi's so-called muscular policy wouldn't last long given the geopolitical compulsions and waited for India to blink first.
Pakistan also understood that Modi lacked the backing of political parties to carry on a tough, no-nonsense policy, what with senior Congress leaders Mani Shankar Aiyar and Salman Khurshid criticising Modi in Pakistan.
These are not the signs of a strong and nationalist leader who can reshape the country's agenda, who can stand on his stated principles and who can stand up to the world. Modi is not Putin or a Thatcher in the making.