Prime Minister Narendra Modi raises the hackles and blood pressure of a lot of Indians for good reasons, but to be honest I find him very entertaining. For instance, his August 23 Ukraine visit was so very funny. I practically split my sides laughing while watching and listening to the star cast of Modi and External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in action in faraway Ukraine. During their Kyiv trip – and its run-up and aftermath – most Indian television news channels were nearly as hilarious and uproarious as Cartoon Network. Modi, of course, was funnier than Jaishankar; our honourable PM regaled me no end for which I am well and truly grateful.
Was it the thrill of travelling from Przemyśl in Poland by the overnight train, Rail Force One, for 10 hours to reach Kyiv that instigated Modi to call on Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy? These days it is not possible to fly to Kyiv as the airspace over the Ukrainian capital is closed since February 2022 when war broke out, and roads too are in very poor shape because of all the fighting. Modi was obviously bowled over by Rail Force One because Joe Biden rode it to Kyiv in February 2023 and the Indian PM impulsively decided to emulate the US President to impress his constituency for domestic electoral and political gains.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Modi pored over published photographs of the wood-panelled train compartment with a TV on the wall, a long table, and sofa which served as Biden’s office. Besides Biden, many world leaders have used the cult train during the ongoing war -- British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Canadian Premier Justin Trudeau, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken – making it even more irresistible to Modi and he flipped for it.
According to CNN, so many Presidents and PMs have used the train service to Kyiv that their outreach is now called “iron diplomacy”. In Modi’s case, it goes without saying that National Security Advisor Ajit Doval sent a whole team of top security officials to check out the train’s safety long before his boss flew to Warsaw en route to Przemysl to board it. Although Doval accompanied Modi to Kyiv, intelligently enough he didn’t speak a word in public, keeping intact his image as one of the more dependable pillars of the Indian diplomatic-cum-security establishment, who knows it is often wise to say nothing.
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Let me quote two gems from Modi and Jaishankar so that readers can judge for themselves the net worth of the duo’s statements in Kyiv and whether the country and countrymen stand to gain anything at all from their expedition to Ukraine funded by the resources-starved public exchequer.
“I want to assure you that India is ready to play an active role in any efforts towards peace. If I can play any role in this personally, I will do that, I want to assure you as a friend,” Modi announced with Zelenskyy by his side.
The guest and the host also had a private chat, which Jaishankar said was “fairly long and very detailed” and was essentially about the “conflict”, and “Zelenskyy knows that we mean well by Ukraine. He knows that we are very keen that this conflict should come to an end. And the gist of the message from our side to him is that if there is anything that we can do in any way, in sort of upfront or behind or supporting somebody… It’s the objective that we are interested in, rather than the process.” Then Jaishankar added, quite enigmatically, that “there are multiple possibilities here and there are multiple views about those possibilities”.
My question is that even if there are “possibilities”, what do they have to do with India’s national interests and current requirements? And what do India and Indians stand to gain from Modi playing peacemaker in the first place?
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It is as clear as daylight that Modi went to Kyiv to project himself as a statesman whose services the world is desperately seeking to resolve international conflicts, as the image-building exercise might fetch him votes in the elections. The other reason for holding Zelenskyy’s hand was to placate Washington, which had publicly censured Modi’s July visit to Moscow where he physically embraced Vladimir Putin. Modi wants to remain in the good books of the United States since it had revoked his personal visa after the anti-Muslim pogrom in Gujarat, and he had to wait to become PM which entitled him to enter the US on an official visa. And Biden indeed commended Modi’s journey to Ukraine when the Indian PM personally informed the US President over the telephone about his trip. Biden’s good words, publicised by the media, let the cat out of the bag, but Biden obviously doesn’t care if his compliments put Modi in an awkward position.
When Modi met Putin in Moscow in July, he requested that all Indians recruited by the Russian military to fight at the warfront with Ukraine should be discharged if they wished to return home. They were expected to be released within weeks from where they were deployed. But there has been no progress on that front, dashing the hopes of families of Indians stationed at the Ukraine front whose case Modi took up with Putin. Nobody knows if Modi even discussed with Zelenskyy the plight of 20,000 Indians who were studying medicine in Ukraine when the war broke out. They were promptly evacuated and only around 2000-2500 have so far managed to return to pursue their dreams of becoming doctors. If Modi had at least paved the way for their return and ensured their safety, his Kyiv trip would have been worth it to an extent. In that sense, Modi’s Moscow and Kyiv visits have proved futile.
The author is an independent, Pegasused reporter and commentator on foreign policy and domestic politics
