Saturday, October 24, 2015

Decoding Narendra Modi, The Diplomat


Gaurav Pradhan, newsworldindia, October 24, 2015 8:51 pm


Image from, under the title: Soft Power Index – Modi’s India, country to watch out for, and with caption: Prime Minister Narendra Modi taking selfie with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.

Excerpt:
In my previous post, I charted out Modi’s policies and the positive perception he created amongst the NRIs the world over. Having assessed it, the following post will try to perceive and understand  “Indian Foreign policies” in most simplistic, non-intellectual way. 
Many of us living abroad for many years have been part of Indian Mission’s meetings and parties world over. They were hosted by Head of Indian mission, which in our languages were known as “Imposed Maharajas” and honestly the objective was wine, dine, fund raising for some events the Embassy or High Commission was planning to organize. Many times we were called in by the Consul Generals to help them prepare business reports, which they have to send to Ministry of External affairs. ... 
I am not a diplomat neither do I understand the Government diplomacy but as an ordinary Indian, I think India’s diplomats are not Maharajas on taxpayers money but helping hand for all Indians living abroad. Something, completely missing in last 10 years. ...
In summary, last 10 years we saw a static foreign policy with an approach of one size fits all and the behaviors of Indian diplomats was, “We are Maharajas”. ...
So what has changed now? Well a lot and to put it in simple form, it’s “Private Diplomacy” to “Public Diplomacy”.
It’s like you stop jogging in your private gym treadmill and start jogging in a public park. Treadmill jogging is static in nature where as when you jog in a park you are more connected with the world.
Today, when Narendra Modi visits any country, interaction with Indian diaspora is on agenda. Recent election in UK and Canada proved that Indian diaspora is part of local politics and one can hate them or love them but they can’t ignore them. ... 
Massive public relation is the main reason for the incumbent PM’s popularity on his trips at home and abroad. With the ministers of the current government taking to Twitter, Facebook and other social media, bypassing the somewhat biased fourth estate and directly connecting to the people, they have won people’s trust and popularity by giving them constant updates on where they are and what they have done. This in simple term is called as “Public Diplomacy”. ...
Soft Power ... is first step to tell the world that “India has Arrived”.
Narendra Modi is first Prime Minister we have seen who has a clear vision and well defined objectives for his government to achieve with this new proactive Foreign Policy. Even before his government took oath of office, he started working on homework with identified team. As soon as Govt moved into office, the MEA minister started engaging with her counter parts in our neighbourhood and the 4 important factors were well defined. ...
(Dr. Gaurav Pradhan is Chief Information Officer, Data Scientist, Digital Strategist and Advisor, Key Note Speaker based out of seattle and is ranked in the top 10 Global CIO. The views expressed here are solely those of the author in his private capacity and do not in any way represent the views of News World India.)

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