Boris Johnson praises Modi’s ‘astral energy’ in memoir

The former British leader credits himself for setting the course for a “proper free-trade deal” with India

• Pramod Thomas
• 12 October, 2024

By: Pramod Thomas

FORMER prime minister Boris Johnson is full of praise for “change-maker” Indian prime minister Narendra Modi in a new memoir that reflects upon his eventful political career and recalls a “curious astral energy” that he felt during his very first meeting with the Indian leader.

Unleashed, which hit the shelves this week, devotes an entire chapter to Britain’s relationship with India, describing it as “a relationship as good as it has ever been.”

Repeatedly stressing the strong India-UK friendship in the context of the Indo-Pacific, the former British leader credits himself for setting the course for a “proper free-trade deal” with India, thanks to finding “exactly the partner and friend” needed in Modi.

“For some reason, we went down to stand in the dark in the plaza by Tower Bridge, in front of a crowd of his supporters,” shares Johnson in the chapter entitled ‘Britain and India,’ referencing his first meeting with Modi during a visit to his City Hall office by the River Thames when he was mayor of London.

“He raised my arm and chanted something or other in Hindi, and though I couldn’t follow it, I felt his curious astral energy. I have enjoyed his company ever since – because I reckon he is the change-maker our relationship needs. With Modi, I felt sure we could not only do a great free-trade deal but also build a long-term partnership, as friends and equals,” he writes.

Johnson reveals how a “distinctly sniffy” UK foreign office had warned him against meeting the “Hindu nationalist” leader during an earlier mayoral trade delegation to India in 2012, a problem that was “soon dropped” to pave the way for a relationship that “hit an all-time high.”

The 60-year-old politician-author asserts how much he loves India, being a “veteran” of many Indian weddings because his children with Sikh heritage ex-wife Marina Wheeler trace their roots to the country.

While he writes with pride of a similar “Anglo-Indian syncretism” in politics with his diverse Cabinet as prime minister, including many British Indians such as Rishi Sunak and Priti Patel, Johnson laments the slow-paced growth of bilateral trade due to unnecessary trade barriers that leave UK visitors “clinking in with duty-free booze” for Indians starved of Scotch whisky at reasonable prices.

The “tremendous success” of his visit to India as prime minister in January 2022 is recalled as a much-needed “morale boost” and “balm for the soul” away from increasingly belligerent domestic politics that would eventually culminate in his unceremonious exit from 10 Downing Street just a few months later.

He claims he also wanted to use the visit to make a “gentle point to Narendra” regarding relations with Russia at a “global inflection point” due to its conflict with Ukraine.

He writes: “I knew all the history and the sensitivities, the reasons for India’s post-war non-alignment with the West, and the seemingly unbreakable relationship with Moscow. I understand the Indian dependence – like China’s – on Russian hydrocarbons.

“But I wondered if it was not time for a modulation, a rethink… As I was to put it to the Indians, Russian missiles were turning out to be less accurate, statistically, than my first serve at tennis. Did they really want to keep Russia as their main supplier of military hardware?”

In this context, in another section of the book, where he showers the late Queen Elizabeth II with effusive praise for her deep personal knowledge of history and history-makers, he references his efforts to encourage India to adopt a “tougher line” with Russia.

“She remembered something the former Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru had told her in the 1950s. ‘He told me that India will always side with Russia and that some things will never change. They just are.’ I cite that as an illustration of her amazing ability to reassure and to contextualise,” he shares, referencing his customary weekly audiences with the late monarch as prime minister.

Johnson goes on to credit himself with injecting a broader vision for the India-UK partnership that extends beyond trade, climate change, and educational partnerships to embark on a comprehensive programme of military and technological collaboration.

“Overcoming the qualms of the MoD (Ministry of Defence), who are always worried about India’s closeness to Russia, we agreed to work together on all kinds of military technology, from submarines to helicopters to marine propulsion units,” he proudly declares.

With Unleashed, Johnson seems keen to stress a lack of bitterness over his undignified removal as prime minister in the wake of the partygate scandal involving Covid law-breaking parties, but he is clear that it was Sunak, his eventual successor at 10 Downing Street, who precipitated the problems by resigning as chancellor from his Cabinet in June 2022.

“It was worse than a crime, I thought; it was a mistake – both for Rishi and for the party, never mind the country. So it proved,” he writes, alluding to the recent disastrous general election result for the Tories.

“I don’t blame Rishi for prematurely wanting to be prime minister; in fact, I don’t blame any of them, really, for trying to turf me out. It’s just what Tory MPs do… It goes without saying that if we had all stuck together, I have no doubt that we would have gone on to win in 2024, and a lot more of my friends would now have their seats,” he claims.

(PTI)