Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has had a quite rocky trip late. Of course, if, by the way, one was to go exclusively of the mainstream India media (pejoratively called “Godi media” by many non-BJP supporters in India), Modi still can’t do anything wrong.
The situation for him on social media, especially, where the BJP troll army used to keep swaying until not so long ago, seems to have changed significantly.
Several things have contributed to this, and all of these have given rise to very popular memes. The first one concerns Operation Sindoor and how the Indians basically ran to the United States and asked it to request Pakistan for a ceasefire. The United States was obliged and US President Trump played the deep trade agreement and made both sides stop.
Shortly after the links between India and the United States, specifically between Modi and Trump, Soured, with the former who refuses to recognize any US role in the ceasefire.
In the weeks followed, Trump has said of the record that he was the one who stopped the war he has repeated could have been nuclear – a war in which between five and seven jets were shot down (he used the figure of five, six and most recently seven) after he persuaded both countries to end it and in return the United States would offer them a trade agreement.
Pakistan played his cards skillfully, with his army chief even invited to a one-on-one lunch by the most powerful man in the world to get a relatively low duty of 19%-together with India’s 50%. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) also followed up by approving investments in Pakistan, and especially a $ 410 million financing for the REKO DIQ project.
ADB stated that this was the first financing of its kind under the new critical minerals to produce value chains approach and marked the bank’s first financing of a mining project for decades.
And several potential rewards followed for Pakistan, where the American resumes fishing master after a multiple annual ban.
The rocky trip is, of course, not entirely related to America’s improved ties with Pakistan. It has a lot to do with India’s own mistakes, especially Modi’s uncertain and paranoid personality. According to a German publication, he made not least four phone calls from the US president, and although large parts of India’s mainstream media take it as a sign that Modi is up to a bully is the fact that Modi does not want to be confronted with the truth.
After all, he cannot admit until his right-wing Hindutva supporters that it was India that requested a ceasefire with Pakistan-it would be a big no and could cost him the right-wing vote.
There is also the question of customs, but it mainly stems from Modi’s erroneous operation Sindoor Fiasco and his rejection of recognizing the role the United States has played, and especially President Trump. This was further aggravated by its oil import from Russia, which is then refined by companies owned by Modi’s friends and sold for a significant profit.
The consequence of this chain of events and the rapid deterioration of the bond between India and the United States has seen Modi enjoy themselves with the presidents of Russia and China at last week’s SCO summit. While the Godi media has made much of its photoops holding the hands of presidents Putin and XI, the Indian Prime Minister has been very ridiculed and mocked for now running to express solidarity with a country that has defeated it at least twice in war recently.
One is, of course, about China, where in Galwan by 2020-21 its military had caused an embarrassing loss on India’s military. And the other is the conflict with Pakistan in May this year, when missiles and fighter jets delivered to Pakistan by China were behind the shot of as many as seven Indian Air Force (IAF) fighter jets, including three Rafales.
One can and should ask how Modi can now justify coding up to China. And the answer to that is that this is a face-saving exercise for him because the only reason for him to act as he did during the SCO summit was because India and American ties are now on an abysmal low and looks likely to be usal, at least for the rest of President Trump’s second period.
The picture ops at the SCO summit is precisely that – optics – and they do not define a bilateral relationship. And in the not too distant past, India has tried to enjoy himself up to the United States, while at the same time leading alliances like Brics, which the United States sees like working against its interests.
This duplicity has now been called out and it will not only be seen as duplicitous of America, but also by China. Pakistan’s own relationship with China is very strong, and as the May conflict showed, it is at a level military without any other example of another place in the world. And it is unlikely that there would be room for India in this.
India clearly looks at a trade relationship with China, which means it doesn’t see itself fighting for a war with it. It is a positive development because, by extension, it should also seek the same kind of relationship with Pakistan. It would be a potential win-win situation for both countries. But it will take more than anyone as modi to do it.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and does not necessarily reflect Pakinomist.tv’s editorial policy.
The author is a journalist based in Karachi. He posts @omar_quraishi and can be reached at: [email protected]
Originally published in the news
