Why is China batting for Narendra Modi’s return to power? And why does Pakistan feel that Indo-Pak peace stands a chance only if Modi returns?
Let us first talk about the dragons who have already started assuming that Modi will be re-elected. News portal the Quint, in an article, highlighted a recent statement of the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who has suggested his country was preparing for ‘another Wuhan’, a high-level summit once again between President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Modi, the article said, suits Chinese interest as it is flexing its economic muscle worldwide. The Chinese abhor uncertainty and would certainly not be comfortable working with a coalition government in India with a different set of ideologies.
“By now, Chinese experts feel that they have got a measure of Modi’s intentions and that he will carry forward the ‘Wuhan spirit’ if re-elected. Most Chinese analysts can only see Modi and BJP provide a stable government with continuity of policy. The other option, according to them, is a ‘messy coalition’ with the Congress and regional parties,” the article said. “It will be difficult for us to find the head and the heart of the government,” the article said, quoting a Yunnan-based expert.
The fear of a policy paralysis arising in the event of a coalition government assuming power is also weighing heavily in the Chinese mind. China needs India to pursue its objective as much as India needs China. Modi’s hardline approach on the vexed issue also gives the Chinese side more confidence then banking on a weak leader with little manoeuvering power, the article said.
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has also gone on record to say that peace between India and Pakistan stand a better chance if Modi returns to power. “The BJP’s hyper-nationalism reinforces the same brand of politics that Khan pursues back home, its aggression justifying a bigger role for the Pakistan military which backed Khan’s rise to power,” the article said.
It is also the BJP’s politics of ‘othering’ the Muslims, that ends up cementing Jinnah’s ‘Two Nation Theory’, which is the raison d’être for the very existence of Pakistan, it underscored.
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