Modi,
however, has greater growth rate on Facebook (1.171 per cent) compared to
Obama's 0.305 per cent. Modi has overtaken Mitt Romney, the former Republican
presidential candidate, who now has 11.345 million followers on Facebook. Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe,
who shares an excellent rapport with Modi, follows only three people on Twitter
- his wife Aki Abe, politician Naoki Inose and Narendra Modi. Modi and Abe both
emphasise on the need for a robust economy and are mindful of China's growing
ambitions.
It is not ET alone – here is something from ‘theguardian.com’
(21.5.14) Japan's prime minister, Shinzo Abe, follows
only three people on Twitter: his outspoken wife, a scandal-tainted politician
and India's prime minister-in-waiting, Narendra Modi. Abe and Modi are two
assertive nationalists who came to power on platforms pledging economic
revival. They share a keen interest in neighbor China's growing regional ambitions.
Mutually appreciative tweets have pinged back and forth since Modi won a
landslide victory in India's
general election on Friday. Relations between India
and Japan have gone from
strength to strength in recent years, with cooperation on infrastructure
projects, trade and defence that is watched closely by China. Japan ranks 13th among India's top
trading partners. Inose is an author-turned-politician who helped Tokyo win a bid to host
the 2020 Olympic Games.
~ and here is something more as reported in CNN. Indians want their version of the American
Dream. Even the Chinese Dream will do. And so they have voted for a man who
promises more for less: more development and growth, with less government and
red tape. For India's
1.27 billion dreamers, their new Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a known
commodity. His simple mandate is to do for India
what he has done for the north western state of Gujarat
in the last 12 years: conjure up Chinese-levels of growth and prosperity. But
for Modi's counterparts in Washington, Beijing, and Islamabad,
India's new
leader is considered a wildcard. Will he be aggressive, or a dove? What is his
foreign policy? Does he have a vision for India's place in the world?
Modi
has certainly begun with a flourish, scoring a coup in getting his Pakistani
counterpart to attend his swearing-in. On Monday, Nawaz Sharif became the first
Pakistani Prime Minister in history to attend an Indian prime minister's
inauguration. Modi's Twitter account also highlights his early attempts to
strengthen ties with his new counterparts. Twitter diplomacy is not just about
rhetoric -- there have been some early results, too. Sri Lankan President
Mahinda Rajapakse tweeted Sunday: "As a goodwill measure on the occasion
of @narendramodi's swearing-in, President instructs officials to release Indian
fishermen in custody."
None
of the above sheds light on what kind of vision Modi has, but it is indeed a
refreshing marker of proactive engagement -- the opposite of India's foreign
policy in years gone by. In an excellent essay in Foreign Affairs last month,
Manjari Chatterjee Miller described how Indian foreign policy in the last 50
years has been characterized "more by continuity than by change" --
irrespective of the party in power.
According to Arun Shourie, former Indian minister - India's
relations with major powers have stayed stable. Broadly, there are two reasons
behind this trend. One is India's
historic pledge of "non-alignment": the country's first Prime
Minister Jawaharlal Nehru founded the global Non-Aligned Movement, a group of
states agreeing to not align with major powers. The other reason is India's neglect
of foreign policy planning from the very top: civil servants get little-to-no
instruction from the prime minister's office, and so have great levels of
autonomy and wield significant power. So what it will be from now on ??
Only
Modi knows the answers. But if Indian foreign policy has so far not been driven
by the prime minister's office, I think we can now expect that strange quirk to
change. For better or worse, Prime Minister Modi will take charge. To conclude with the
quote of Arun Shourie, "Anyone who says they know Modi's plans, doesn't
really know anything. The ones who know won't talk."
With
regards – S. Sampathkumar
30th May 2014.
