As you walk into Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home-office at 7, Lok Kalyan Marg, it is impossible to miss how organised the room is-- his work table is neatly laid out, and the sitting area for guests (where he hosted moneycontrol.com editors) is planned to perfection. Modi is courteous to a fault and greets us warmly. After the pleasantries, he poses for a photograph before settling down for an hour-long interaction ahead of the summit meeting of the heads of state and governments of the world’s largest economies.
The air inside is one of quiet satisfaction. Outside, New Delhi is all decked up to receive the leaders of the world’s most powerful countries. Joe Biden will be here on his first visit as US president, and it will be a first for Britain’s Rishi Sunak as Prime Minister. Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman will stay on for a state visit right after the summit. And Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will be returning after a trip in March. The opposition has criticised the Prime Minister for converting what they say is a routine, rotational Presidency of G20 into a mega theatre. But as far as Modi is concerned, that is just the point--nothing is routine or taken for granted. Everything is an opportunity.
What might have been a run-of-the-mill elitist gathering in the corridors of power has taken on a new avatar and a new meaning because the prime minister wants it to be a ‘people’s presidency.’ Dozens of cities across India have hosted G20 delegates over the past year as they discussed topics from culture to climate change. In the process, they were able to witness the vibrancy and diversity that is India. Meanwhile, states, regardless of the party in power, vied with each other to put on a world-class show. Other countries, such as Brazil or even the US, that will host G20 summits in the future, may find this a hard act to follow.
India has partaken of the G20 presidency in a unique way, offering up an array of flavours and experiences that is the true nature of the country. That this was so became evident to Modi when, on Wednesday, a little girl from a remote village tied a ‘G20 Rakhi’ on his wrist. She had made the rakhi herself and understood that G20 was not some esoteric show but belonged to everyone.
Dressed in his workday clothes consisting of a half-sleeve grey kurta, a white-blue-grey checked jacket, collared chudidar pyjama and beige shoes, Modi was well turned out, as always. An inexpensive ball-point pen peeked out of the upper pocket of his jacket. And on his wrist was the trademark old watch that he wears, dial downwards.
Time and experience have been his biggest teachers, says Modi, who started his career in public life more than half a century ago. In 1972, he became a pracharak (full-time worker) for the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the world’s largest voluntary organisation. The peripatetic Modi has spent at least one night in 90 percent of the districts of the country, observing and absorbing all that life threw at him.
Even the staunchest critics of the Prime Minister grudgingly admit that there is no-one quite like him when it comes to a wealth of experiences. “I’m a very jeevant (alive to realities) person, a man who’s gone through many experiences in life. So, my decisions are based on official information apart from data from other sources. A large part of my decision-making is based on ‘living information.’ I then consult my colleagues and officers in the government on how feasible it is to carry out the decision.”
An unorthodox approach to decision-making anchored in the reality of India is perhaps why survey after survey puts him as the most popular leader in India. No other world leader has quite the following that he does.
It is not the first time that Modi has used mega events to showcase India’s diverse attractions. He hosted Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Ahmedabad; the late Japanese PM Shinzo Abe in Varanasi; and the German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Bengaluru. In the last nine years, he has not used Vigyan Bhawan—the nerve-centre of many state visits in an era gone by—for big global events save a few. “My biggest problem is with those who think Dilli is Hindustan,” says Modi.
For the Prime Minister, Gandhinagar perhaps is also not Gujarat. Early in his stint as the Gujarat’s chief minister, he moved the Independence Day, Republic Day and Sthapana Divas celebrations to all parts of the state. In doing so, he ended up taking the celebration to thousands of
villages and lakhs of people instead of confining it to a few.
If he’s taken himself and his events to every part of India, he’s also taken every part of the country to the far corners of the globe. He’s gifted world leaders exquisite stuff from different parts of India. The US President Biden, for example, was gifted Kangra miniature paintings from Himachal Pradesh. Britain’s Sunak received Mata Ni Pachedi, a handmade textile piece made by the traditionally nomadic Waghris of Gujarat. “I could have gifted anything to global leaders and they would have been happy. But I took items from my one-district-one-product initiative to many world leaders, making people of the district hugely proud of their achievements.”
The benefit of experience and the advantage of native wisdom are also evident in Modi’s approach to economic management. Today, India is the world’s fastest-growing major economy, winning encomiums from the likes of Ray Dalio, the cofounder of the world’s largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates.
In the past nine years, Modi has applied lessons from experience to put India on a path to becoming the world’s third-largest economy by 2027. “When I took over in 2014, many world leaders told me it was difficult to do business with India because our banking system could not be trusted,” he recalls. “Today, we have one of the strongest banking systems in the world. Our central bank RBI is seen with gravitas and respect at global platforms.” To salvage public-sector banks, Modi drew from his experience of a banking crisis following the collapse of the Madhavpura Cooperative Bank in Gujarat.
During the height of Covid, there was immense pressure on him to print more notes and inject more stimulus into the economy, as countries in the developed world had done. But he dug his heels in. “I didn’t do it. I knew I was taking a big political risk, but I diverted the money into Covid management. That’s the reason price rise is not so much of a concern in India today as it is in the rest of the world,” says Modi.
Finally, what does he make of 2024? What’s his prognosis as the opposition front I.N.D.I.A plans a joint offensive against the man and his party? “In 2014, nobody knew Modi and yet they voted me in with such a huge mandate. Ten years on, they’ve seen a little bit of Modi everywhere—in the Chandrayaan Mission, in my recent visit to the US. Now that they know me well, I have no doubt that the people will choose correctly again.”
You can do the mathematics about the majority.
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