Modi Must Learn From the Past to Deal with Donald Trump and Salvage India’s Image and Stature

In December 1936, Mahatma Gandhi stated, “When Americans come and ask me what service they could render, I tell them: ‘If you dangle your millions before us, you will make beggars of us and demoralise us.’ But in one thing I do not mind being a beggar. I would beg of you for your scientific talent. You can ask your engineers and agricultural experts to place their services at our disposal. They must not come to us as our lords and masters but as voluntary workers.”

Those words were invoked on March 21, 2000, by the then President of India K.R. Narayanan in his speech at the banquet hosted in honour of US President Bill Clinton to subtly signal that the American leadership should deal with India with honour and respect.

What Gandhi said in 1936 assumed greater significance in the context of what is being imposed on India in 2025 not by an ordinary American but by US President Donald Trump who is lording over India; and Prime Minister Modi is meekly accepting it without displaying even scant courage to reject his assertions. Trump has repeated 30 times that he brokered the ceasefire between India and Pakistan following military hostilities between two countries after India launched Operation Sindoor.

Rahul’s Challenge to Modi

On July 26, the Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi while participating in the discussion on Operation Sindoor in the Lok Sabha challenged Modi and said that if he has half the courage of former Prime Minister late Indira Gandhi (who dismembered Pakistan in 1971 war disregarding US threats), he should say that Trump is a liar for his claims on brokering the ceasefire. Modi did not accept that challenge and only stated that no other world leader asked him to stop the war, thus clearly showing lack of courage to name Trump and reject his repeated assertions.

Tariff on India

The next day, a 25% tariff was imposed by the US President on India with the threat of an additional unannounced penalty for India’s ongoing trade with Russia involving crude oil and military purchases. A day later he wrote on social media, “I don't care what India does with Russia. They can take their dead economies down together, for all I care.” Such condemnation of the Indian economy and contempt heaped on it is a reflection of his disdain for India’s leadership represented by Prime Minister Modi.

Adding insult to injury, he stated that the US has concluded a deal with Pakistan to work together for developing the latter’s massive oil reserves and then remarked, “Who knows, maybe they’ll be selling oil to India someday!”

His statements clearly bring out his patronising and heavy handed attitude which fits into Gandhi’s description of “lords and masters” and it is sharply pronounced in the context of Modi’s submissive and meek acceptance of every word Trump utters against India. Such stunning silence that he maintains in face of Trump’s humiliating actions and statements against India when the country is militarily and economically strong flags the point that weak leadership of Modi has hugely dented India’s image at the global level.

Past Examples of Indira Gandhi’s and Nehru’s Leadership

In early 1970s, when Indira Gandhi was the prime minister of India was described as a country living from “ship to mouth” on account of import of massive amounts of food grains to feed millions of people facing hunger and acute deficit of cereals and pulses. India’s agreement with the US in pursuance of its PL 480 (Public Law 480) enabled our country to get tonnes of food grains.

Under Indira Gandhi's leadership, India attained self sufficiency in food grain production in 1971. M.S. Swaminathan, the celebrated agricultural scientist, bestowed with Bharat Ratna by the Modi government, was one of the key figures who accelerated the Green Revolution during Gandhi's tenure and ensured self-sufficiency in food production for India. Paying homage to her after her tragic assassination in 1984, he wrote that she unilaterally terminated the PL-480 agreement with the US and that India attaining self-sufficiency in food grain production in 1971 was more remarkable than an American walking on the moon.

It was against that backdrop that Indira Gandhi showed her leadership to take on American President Richard Nixon who deployed the mighty US seventh fleet in the high seas closer to India as a deterrent against India to not take military action against Pakistan in 1971. Disregarding that coercive action and threat she decisively defeated Pakistan in the war, broke it into two pieces and helped create Bangladesh in place of East Pakistan. Nixon, trying to act as ‘lord and master’, got the lesson from the might and majesty of Indira Gandhi who enhanced the stature of India at the global level and altered the geo-strategic environment of the subcontinent once and for all in India’s favour.

Even earlier, during the formative stage of nation building in the 1950s, India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru played a key role on Austria’s request to restore its freedom and sovereignty by employing diplomacy to free Austrian territory of the occupation forces of several countries including that of the erstwhile USSR.

The colossal failure of Prime Minister Modi in defending India’s image and in face of repeated statements of the US President Trump, that he dictated the ceasefire between India and Pakistan, is a sad commentary on Modi’s leadership qualities. And added to such a tragic episode is the imposition of 25 per cent tariff and a penalty for buying oil and military equipment from Russia.

The preference of Trump for Pakistan in contrast to the humiliation he is inflicting on India could obviously encourage the Pakistani leadership to adversely act against our country. The “lord and master” syndrome of Trump is unacceptable. Modi must learn lessons from our past and grow up to deal with the challenges to salvage India’s image and stature.

S.N. Sahu served as an officer on special duty to former President KR Narayanan.

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