Actor of change, astral energy' India TV

Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a new memoir, calling him a changemaker. His memoir reflects his eventful political career and recalls a curious astral energy he felt during his very first meeting with Prime Minister Modi.

The memoir, titled “Unleashed,” was released this week in the United Kingdom. The former British Prime Minister devoted an entire chapter to Britain's relations with India, as good as they have ever been.

In his memoir, Johnson repeatedly highlighted the strong friendship between India and the United Kingdom in the context of the Indo-Pacific and congratulated himself for paving the way for a genuine free trade agreement with India thanks to having found “exactly the partner and friend” he needed in the Prime Minister. Modi.

Johnson recalls his meeting with Prime Minister Modi at his town hall

For some reason, we came down to stand in the dark in the square near Tower Bridge, in front of a crowd of his supporters, Johnson shares in the chapter titled Britain and India, referring to his first meeting with Modi during of a visit to his city. Hall's office on the banks of the River Thames when he was Mayor of London.

Felt his curious astral energy: Johnson during his first meeting with Prime Minister Modi

He raised my arm and sang something or other in Hindi, and although I couldn't follow him, I felt his curious astral energy. Since then, I have enjoyed his company because I think he is the changemaker our relationship needs. With Modi, I was sure, we could not only conclude a great free trade agreement, but also build a long-term partnership, as friends and equals, he wrote.

Johnson reveals how a particularly sniffy British Foreign Office warned him not to meet the Hindu nationalist leader during a previous mayoral trade delegation to India in 2012, an issue quickly resolved to pave the way for a relationship which “reached a record level”.

While he proudly writes of a similar “Anglo-Indian syncretism” in politics with his diverse Cabinet as Prime Minister, including many British Indians such as Rishi Sunak and Priti Patel, Johnson laments the slow growth of bilateral trade due to unnecessary trade barriers that let British visitors fool around with duty-free booze for Indians hungry for Scotch whiskey at decent prices.

He remembers the huge success of his visit to India as Prime Minister in January 2022 as a much-needed morale boost and balm for the soul, away from increasingly domestic politics belligerence that would eventually end with his unceremonious exit from 10 Downing Street just a few months. later.

He says he had also wanted to use the visit to make a gentle remark to Narendra on the issue of relations with Russia at a global inflection point with its conflict with Ukraine.

He writes: I knew the whole history and sensitivities, the reasons for India's non-alignment with the West after the war, the seemingly unbreakable relationship with Moscow. I understand the dependence of both India and China on Russian hydrocarbons.

But I wondered if the time had not come for a modulation, for a new reflection… As I had to tell the Indians, the Russian missiles proved less precise, statistically, than my first serve in tennis. Did they really want to keep Russia as the main supplier of military equipment?

It is in this context that in another section of the book, where he praises the late Queen Elizabeth II for her deep personal knowledge of history and history's creators, he refers to her efforts to get India to take a tougher line towards the Russians. .

(With PTI inputs)

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