New Delhi: His image in the country could be a hard taskmaster, and detractors may even call him fascist and Hitler. At the global stage somewhere, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is being called a leader with a 'calm voice'.
Australian scholar and a writer of repute, Stephen Manallack, has called the Prime Minister – "The leader of the times when too many are eager to beat the drums of war."
"With a boost to manufacturing and FDI, India is the winner at Quad," he opines. He also hails Modi's 'star' and celebrity-like status and popularity in the west, and that he has made "India's calming voice apparent in Washington DC" during the just-concluded five-day visit. "PM Modi continues to be treated like a movie star in the West," Mallack notes.
Importantly, Australia had been a key player during Modi's visit to the US, as the Prime Minister held a bilateral with his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison. And also that India and Australia are two key stakeholders in the Quad, along with the US and Japan.
In the context of India's new role in the changing geopolitical situation, Mallack, in an article, says, India is "calm common sense when the world is set on polarisation." These observations have significance of their own, especially on the backdrop of changing dynamics in Afghanistan with the US withdrawal and Taliban takeover.
Moreover, in a surprising development, Australia, the UK and the United States have floated the AUKUS and have unnerved France. All these developments seem to have some relevance to China or are in the context of Beijing.
Mallack is a Director of India and Asia business consultancy East-West Academy and has penned the critically acclaimed book 'Soft Skills for a Flat World'.
Appreciating India's stance in the emerging world scenario, he writes: "India sees the world through non-alignment, experienced in dealing with competing powers and accepting that every country will be different and not all will be democracies." (courtesy–CNN-News18.com)
He also wrote: "Prime Minister Modi sent a strong signal of India's non-alignment to the Quad when the week before the Summit, he attended the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation."
He also said the 'supply chains' initiatives, as discussed at the Quad Summit, would be good for both India and Australia, while the US and Japan would be providing technology innovations. Mallack is also a blogger INTO India and a former president of the Australia-India Business Council.
In a piece for 'The Sydney Morning Herald', Mallack had written in December 2020, "India has provided strong numbers in tourism and education in Australia and we could work hard to expand this as interest from China falls away."
