This is a work of fiction. Although it may appear closer to reality than fiction for some.
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As you know, the Indian Prime Minister, Hon’ble Narendra Modi, was in America for an official meeting with President Donald Trump. During their personal meeting, the prime minister complimented the president for relying on the help and advice of his very, very rich friends. The prime minister told the president that for some 20 years now, he has benefited from helping and being helped by rich people. In a light-hearted vein, the prime minister shared with the president how liberals in India like to call his rich friends “obscenely wealthy” but like Trump, he has never cared for public opinion.
It was at this stage that the president suggested that Mr. Modi have a chat with Mr. Musk. For good measure, the president warned that if the prime minister left Washington without calling on Mr. Musk, his good friend would not be pleased. “And, I cannot have El getting annoyed. So, do yourself a favour and meet him.”
So it should be clearly understood that neither the Indian prime minister nor Mr. Musk sought the meeting. It was suggested by the US president and, to quote that old line from The Godfather, it was an offer Mr. Modi could not refuse. Mr. Musk’s only condition was that it would a delegation level meeting; now that he is part of the US government, he is rather leery of having any informal confabulations with government heads.
The Musk establishment is pleased to note that the Indian prime minister brought his senior most advisers to the meeting. Mr. Musk’s ‘delegation’ consisted of his three children, each of whom was duly profiled by the pro-government Indian media. Our attention has been drawn to considerable sniggering back in India about the presence of the three children. Some have asked why Modi asked his foreign minister and NSA to be present when their US counterparts were not there. This is not fair. At least one of the senior Indian officials tried to make some baby-talk with the Musk children while another minuted the exchange.
All told, this was a brief meeting. Mr. Musk was pressed for time, as he had promised to take the kids out for a spin around town. He told the Indian prime minister that his people should feel free to put out whatever statement they wanted; because as far as he was concerned, his only priority was that his meeting had taken place in full public glare.
It is our understanding that as and when Mr. Musk wants to take his business to India, he would do so on his terms and time. And, I think, after today’s meeting this much will also be clear to the Indian prime minister. Many people around the world have concluded that President Trump makes a tough negotiator; soon they will discover, as hopefully Mr. Modi did, that Mr. Musk makes the president look mild.
Today, Mr. Musk is not just an entrepreneur, he has the might of the New American Deep State behind him. Except Mr. Xi in China, there is no leader in any part of the world who would want to take – to use a colourful Indian phrase – panga with him. And, Mr. Modi and his friends make a very, very vulnerable lot. Many Indian think-tankers imagine that the Indian diaspora wields a lot of clout in Washington. But for them and all Indian-origin citizens, we have one word: ‘Normalize‘.
In our reckoning, Gautam Adani is the only smart Indian. He hires the smartest of our legal people; he engages lobbyists who deftly play the oldest game Washington knows – how to spend money on the Hill. Both Mr. Musk and Mr. Trump admire those businessmen, at home and abroad, who know how to own politicians, bureaucrats, judges, and journalists. Neither President Trump nor Mr. Musk is hung up on this “integrity” business. For Mr. Modi this is familiar terrain and we are sure he has also absorbed the new mood in Washington.
It is our belief that very brief meeting the Indian prime minister had with Mr. Musk will turn out to be most consequential. As the authorized enforcer of presidential authority in Washington, Mr. Musk is required to size up world leaders who come calling at the White House. We are glad we had an early opportunity to take a measure of Mr. Modi.
