The appalling impasse that the Modi government finds itself in with the relentless bullying tactics of US President Donald Trump is to a large extent of its own making. Had Prime Minister Narendra Modi not so aggressively posed as a Vishwaguru with a hotline to top world leaders, with Trump a close buddy, he may not have appeared so lost in the geopolitical storms blowing across the world. Unfortunately for the triumphalist leader and his cohorts, they are hoist on their own petard.

Baited simultaneously by both the superpowers, China and the United States, the Prime Minister’s balloon as a global strongman floated by his propagandists has been palpably punctured. The first jolt to his uniquely personality-centric approach to foreign policy came when the Chinese betrayed him with a savage military intrusion across the border after he held hands with President Xi Jinping swinging on a Gujarati jhula. But this did not cause him much harm at home since the Chinese have always been distrusted since they invaded this country in 1962.

However, Trump’s never-ending barrage of thinly veiled taunts and insults over the past few months to needle India into surrendering to a totally unequal trade deal has stunned even the most faithful of Modi’s followers. Not least because the United States has been seen as India’s closest strategic ally in recent decades, with Trump as a personal buddy of the Vishwaguru.

Indeed, the special Modi-Trump bond had been long advertised by government propagandists,........

© Free Press Journal