BRICS: Modi may be India's PM, but he still has a Gujarat hangover

Narendra Modi may have become the Prime Minister of India, but looks like he is still occupied by his role as the Gujarat chief minister. During his trip to Brazil, Modi spoke about Gujarat with whoever he met, be it Russian President Vladimir Putin or Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff.

A Zee New report said, “Modi fondly recalled his visit to Russia’s Astrakan region in his early days as Chief Minister of Gujarat which has ties with that region. Talking about that visit, he said he felt as if he was in India.”

The fact that he still has the Gujarat hangover has raised questions on whether a country’s ties with Gujarat will affect its relations with India, reported The Telegraph.

“Will countries with greater investments in Gujarat gain over those whose expertise has led them to invest in other states?” a diplomat from a west European nation asked this correspondent last Wednesday the report said. “Should we start investing more in Gujarat?”

Meanwhile ANI reported that “Describing Brazil as a key global partner for India, Prime Minister noted that as two democracies and major emerging economies, India and Brazil not only had vast potential for bilateral cooperation, but also to strengthen each other in international forums and advance the interest of the developing world at large. He also noted that Gujarat has emerged as a prime driver of India’s economic relations with Brazil.”

Diplomats said that no other PM of India had focused so much on one state of the country, however they were ready to give him time to take care of this issue. The Telegraph reports quotes one of them as saying, “It’s quite unprecedented, and I can understand how foreign diplomats will try to interpret this. But it may just be early days for the PM, and perhaps we should give him the benefit of the doubt.”

Criticism on Modi’s trip does not end with Gujarat. Apparently he did not have the correct body language either, as reported earlier by Firstpost. Lack of eye contact, shifting feet, self touching gestures to lack of correct expressions, Modi seems to have committed many body language faux pas.

Khyati Bhatt a body image consultant wrote “Throughout his speech, Modi shifted from one foot to the other, swinging like a pendulum, making it difficult to watch him with a steady gaze. This behaviour suggests his nervousness and perhaps a desire to be elsewhere. A good strategy for avoiding this shifty tendency is to stand with feet slightly apart. Better still would be to shift your position or stepping slightly forward and backward, after every point is completed.”

The article further noted, “If you turn off the volume, you cannot make out whether Modi is reading out a grocery list or proposing solutions that can take the BRICS nations forward to build a better tomorrow. A good speaker shows the ebbs and tides of emotional variations as his speech proceeds. Forget to show the expected level of enthusiasm and accompanying expressions and you will invite enable the audience to switch off their auditory receptors.”

Modi may not have done his homework on body language, but when it came to negotiations and making his presence felt, he aced. Firstpost in an earlier article said, “Modi also used the BRICS summit as an opportunity to raise one of India’s biggest concerns on the world stage. Terrorism in any form, including in cyber-space, is against humanity, Modi said, calling for a “zero tolerance” attitude. He also won some brownie points for linking the new hyper-linked world order with the ancient Indian concept of Vasudaiva Kutumbakam.”