What Happens When Modi meets Obama in New Delhi on 26th January 2015?
News reports are pouring about the forthcoming visit of US President Barak Obama to India to be the guest of honor for the Republic Day parade of India, a ritualistic event held every year with a lot of enthusiasm and fanfare. Those who are known about Prime Minister Modi's penchant for event management will vouch that it will be a perfect show played to the prepared text and candor. Bereft of any major business consultations, the event most probably will be marked by bonhomie and to an extent some theatrics by both leaders to gravitate towards the public. It will be tagged as an exercise to build people - to-people contacts and to cement the sentimental ties between the two largest democracies.
There are apparently some similarities between the two heads of states. One was a tea boy and the other in his younger days carried the baggage of discrimination on several counts. Both are self made people who worked their way up despite discrimination and apathy from the so called elite class. Both are people who had fought the system from within and every mental agony perpetrated unto them honed up their fighting skills and sagacity and perseverance to face adversities. Importantly, both of them are crowd pullers and to a very great extent made to the top through their oratory and organizing power.
There are marked differences between the two. Prime Minister Modi had the advantage of growing up in a family along with his siblings in a poor yet comfortable family confines. But President Obama had faced the vicissitudes of life right from the beginning. He was born into a multi-racial and religious family, his father a Muslim and mother a Christian, his early separation from his father, his sojourn in Indonesia along with his mother and step-father, his return to the US to continue his studies under the supervision of his grand parents having diametrically opposite characters (see his autobiography), his early disdain with studies and the signs of a rebel are well documented by him.
President Obama was born in a land of opportunity and that way he could work his way up once he made up his mind to shun the past and look towards the future. From a social organizer, who worked at the grassroots fighting for the rights of the underprivileged and underdogs, when opportunity presented, he quickly grabbed it and made most of it by enrolling himself at the best law school in the world - Harvard Law School- and from there there was no looking back.
Prime Minister Modi' that way was not lucky to get education from ivy league. Drafted into the cultural wing of the BJP at an young age( that time it was known as Jansangh), the RSS, Modi from his own accounts graduated to a Prachark (an organizer of sort) from a tea boy, and got himself intensely involved in the activities of the organization. Whatever education he could get was through correspondence courses. There is a mismatch between his political acumen and known scholastic achievements. He would have made up that deficit by traveling across the country and beyond and actively participating in the social outreach programs.
Like Prime Minister Modi, President Obama has sentimental attachments to his roots. His visit to Kenya in the later part of his life, his association with his half siblings, step-father and a few unknown step-mothers, his paternal grand mother and close relatives in Kenya are reminders of his sentimental touch that go beyond the comprehension of a suave, urbane and highly educated person. That also highlights his capability to connect with the people. One looming picture that comes to mind is Prime Minister Modi visiting his mother in a nondescript house in Ahmadabad to seek her blessings surrounded by his relatives after getting the mandate to rule the largest democracy in the world.
Interestingly, President Obama had realized that fighting against discrimination needed support from all sections of the people including those who vehemently perpetrated that in their action. His idea was to fight against the mindset and not the man. In his struggle towards that goal, he took the support of all - whites, browns,blacks, Hispanics, gays, single parents etc. That is why he had become the first elected black President of the United States. His is a treatise that will be remembered for ever and emulation was that is near impossible.
President Obama, for some strange reason, has a culinary affinity with India. In his autobiography, he mentions about our poor samosa several times and if my memory is right there are narrations of him gorging that poor man's delicacy either in US or in Kenya. While I do not know whether Prime Minister Modi likes burgers or hotdogs, I am reasonably sure tat some delicacies of Gujarat may find place in the exclusive menu card crafted for President Obama.
Importantly, as days roll by, President Obama may be inching towards the end of his career as the President of the United Sates of America, whereas Prime Minister Modi has just started his run. Does it portend anything significant?
