Modi presents itself on the landscape of history – Oped – Eurasia Review

As an advertisement of Lex Fridmans podcasts, I can say that his 3 -hour interview with Prime Minister Narendra Modi was a fantastic media management success for the Indian establishment.

Fridman is himself a celebrity to celebrities like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Kanye West and Tucker Carlson. Donald Trump interrupted his presidential campaign in September of last year, when he was on the razors in the middle of his two assassination attempts to give an interview to Fridman.

Fridman has the reputation of deep and authentic conversations and is the antithesis of rapid journalism in clicks of the genre which, in the Indian digital media space, is largely proved to be performance presentations or fictitious stories.

Fridman lets his notable guests speak and inspires the public to come, to listen and to stay and, above all, he joins his audience, being himself a listener. This distinguishes its unique character.

Therefore, an interview with Fridman is never a risky affair. The celebrity challenge actually lies in the fact of causing your attention rather than fighting. Fridman is not at all interested in a single weapon.

What attracted his imagination is the spirituality of Modi, a poor boy from a Hindu family, Gujarati of other backward classes (OBC) in Vadnagaman who did things to Delhi, the Citadel of the Elites of Brahmin-Baniya who govern India. According to the apparently, Fridman fast for 45 hours in preparation to speak spiritually with Modi!

Modi is very selective to give interviews. The Indian media are, in general, hostile (and unfair) towards him, including the toads which can flatter him in public. But what had to attract Modi would have been only by the conversation and the connection, the Podcasts of Fridmans put the power in people.

Modi is renowned for hosting a ricaning contempt towards the so-called intelligentsia, but Fridman ended up praising him later while publishing the video on X and adding that it was one of the most moving and powerful conversations and experiences of my life.

Now, it is a rare compliment because you can feel fridmans engaging conversations on the nature of intelligence, consciousness, love, power, etc. And the range of subjects he has treated in his podcasts and videos of human nature, conflicts in Palestine / Israel, by investing, in, in Ukraine, losing civilizations, extraterrestrials, June and thus at the end of intelligence, to another, in June, at the end of cunning intelligence. CRME of the CRME of the Soviet Migrans Community in the United States, almost in the same league as, say, Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google (also, like Fridman, born in Moscow) who helped make America large.

However, it is difficult to describe what Fridmans podcasts are. Their intellectual content goes without saying. Her 3-hour conversation with Fiona Hill has certainly added that something additional to dozens of books that I read on Russia over the decades, in particular this spark when she made the comparison between the collapse of the Soviet Union and the current decline in real time and live from the United States from the point of view of an English security woman in the US cities And at the White House Security Council.

But it is a part of the deep contribution of Fridmans to journalism.

Basically, his interviews concern you. They are about us. You end up binding to Fridmans conversations. So what remains a poignant impression left is when Fridman slowly pulled Modi, to talk about his childhood.

I couldn't help telling the story of Modis to my own childhood in an almost similar context, although another corner of India. After all, as Wordsworth wrote it in his famous poem, my heart jumps (also known as the rainbow), the child is the father of man.

Modi had a happy childhood, although his family was poor and had trouble lacking, deprivation and denial. But his mother too, like mine, had this rare cognition to raise children by encouraging them to spend time speaking with God, building a special relationship with him and helping the child with a life of faith by understanding that he will face many choices in life and that all choices are not good.

There is a good passage in the memory of his journey of life where he approaches the mystique of fasting, his spiritual content, how he practices it during the Navaratri period when he would consume for only 11 days hot water and once he had to dine with President Barack Obama.

Of course, whoever, like me, who practiced fasting would know the massive accretion of inner strength which takes place for such periods. He throws himself surreptitiously in drop, takes refuge in the attic of the mind and presents himself stealthily during the trials and tribulations in everyday life. But then, fasting is not to deny itself to enjoy life but on the contrary, take a break to enjoy even more life. Modi understands that. Look at her expensive clothes, shoes, grip or pen pen.

Donald Trump as an alter-ego

However, in the end, what is Modi without politics? Obviously, Modi anticipated the two delicate questions that Fridman had to throw him Donald Trump and China. And he came prepared.

Modi caused Trump's praise as a man of courage, born from his firm conviction that he was chosen by God as a man of destiny. Modi is attracted to Trumps America First Doctrine, but that does not seem clear in his mind what it really means. Thus, Modi is equivalent to the doctrine of Trump to his own simplistic concept of nation.

Modi said, I defend India first and that is why we (him and Trump) we connect so well. But life is real. Modi misses the point that America goes far, far beyond what passes as a pursuit of national interests, which is an inchoate concept anyway. Manmohan Singh called him the enlightened national interest in making sure that he knew that we did not know something that we, the subordinates, did not know.

America is first of all closer to mercantilism a repugnant variant of nationalism which is antithetical of Indian values ​​dating back to Mahavira and Buddha.

Unsurprisingly, Trump shared Modis' podcast with Fridman on his truth account. Trump's intentions, a transactional president, are never easy to say. Trump is an emotional man but also a mercury and very motivated personality. We will know during the next fortnight if and when it deploys reciprocal prices on Indian goods, if the flattering words of Modis have made a significant difference for Trumps Compass.

Chinese fruit bowl picking cherry

Indeed, the culmination of the Modis interview was its reflections on India relations with China. This has been the most important opening for Beijing in the past decade by forcefully advocating an improvement in relations between the two countries. His salience lies in the thaw in the India-China relationship in the recent past and the desire for a modis of dialogue on discord. Modi has frankly recognized tensions, but stressed that we saw a return to normality at the border (and) we work to restore the conditions to the way they were before 2020.

But it was as far as modifying, knowing that in his party and in the Indian political spectrum overall, there is no consensus on Indian-Chinese relations. The Gordian knot of the Indian story of 6 decades remains undoubtedly. The fact is that Modi positions (re) India taking into account the transformation of the time in the world order and increasing realization in the West, including the United States, that a containment strategy to thwart the Chinas is rising as a superpower is no longer viable.

Second, there is also a disastrous necessity that the Indian economy normalizes with China. The 2024 economic survey had revealed that India faces two choices to benefit from China plus a strategy: it can be integrated into the supply chain in Chinas or promote the IED from China. Among these choices, focusing on the FDI from China seems more promising to stimulate India exports to the United States, similar to the way in which the economies of Eastern Asia have done in the past.

It is enough to say that Modis India is only cherry. A paradigm shift in China Indias policies is not to be expected in the short term. Modi has suggested that the two parallel tracks of competition and cooperation would work side by side. In short, all that Modi does is to synchronize his Rolex watch with Trumps Patek Philippe Golden Ellipse, who, according to the latest reports, is looking for a meeting at the top with Xi Jinping next month.

Where is the beef in it?

In the end, this is an interview which is intended to attract the attention of the world elite The small cosmopolitan group of businessmen, politicians, bureaucrats and the most influential opinions in the world capitals to attractive personalities, the part of his character he would like to reveal to others. India Mofussil politicians do not need to be excited by his attractive presentation of himself, to which he is entitled as a charismatic leader of a nation of 1400 million people.

However, this interview does not concern India and the Indians. Basically, Modi is called a large spoonful of attractive self-comprehensive, which operates on the validation principle. That is to say that when we receive compliments or praise, it triggers a release of dopamine in the brain, arousing feelings of pleasure and reward. This neurological response is deeply rooted in human nature, pushing us to request the approval and recognition of others.

However, this also poses a challenge for Modi. The challenge will be to make the desired perception relevant for his work or his future personality. In other words, he must show results. Or, it is only the teflon coating that can provide a shiny but not durable finish, is not resistant to high temperatures in Indian summer and can be damaged in extreme weather conditions in the landscape of current history.