Modi Is India’s Most Consequential PM: Fareed Zakaria
Veteran US journalist says PM Modi defies leadership fatigue, sees scope for India–US trade deal
- Fareed Zakaria calls PM Modi the most impactful leader after Jawaharlal Nehru
- Says Modi has not shown signs of fatigue despite long tenure
- Links Modi’s durability to discipline and weak opposition
- Sees possible India–US trade deal with political realism
GG News Bureau
New Delhi, 18th Dec: Veteran US journalist and foreign affairs commentator Fareed Zakaria has described Prime Minister Narendra Modi as “India’s most consequential leader since Jawaharlal Nehru,” saying the Prime Minister has defied the usual decline seen in long-serving leaders.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with NDTV Editor-in-Chief Rahul Kanwal, Zakaria noted that most leaders tend to falter after a decade in power. “Leaders start to lose it after 10 years, which leads to their downfall. You don’t see that in Modi’s case,” he said. He attributed this resilience partly to weak opposition and partly to Modi’s personal discipline. “He does not seem to be fatiguing,” Zakaria added.
Placing Modi in a longer historical context, Zakaria compared him with India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who led the country from independence in 1947 until his death in 1964 and laid the foundations of India’s democratic institutions, foreign policy and early economic model. “Modi is the most consequential Indian Prime Minister since Nehru,” Zakaria said.
Reflecting on India’s transformation over the decades, Zakaria observed that while the country has become far wealthier, some aspects have weakened. “The India I grew up in was much more socialist, but also more pluralistic. Now it is much richer, but some of these other metrics have decayed,” he said.
Zakaria, an Indian-born American journalist, hosts Fareed Zakaria GPS on CNN and writes a weekly column for The Washington Post. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential global voices on geopolitics and foreign policy.
On India–US economic ties, Zakaria said a trade deal is possible if handled with political pragmatism. He suggested that Prime Minister Modi could frame negotiations by acknowledging domestic constraints, particularly on agriculture, while offering concessions aligned with US priorities. “Trump cares about investment in America, buying American products, maybe defence products. I think there’s a deal to be had,” he said.
Prime Minister Modi and former US President Donald Trump held a phone conversation on December 11, during which they discussed strengthening the India–US bilateral economic partnership, amid indications that both sides are moving closer to finalising a long-awaited trade agreement.
