THREAD:
1n You know I have no love lost for Modi. However his decision to support Trump was the right one. It is very easy to second guess with the benefit of hindsight. But this was one of Modi’s genuinely courageous gambits. Let’s understand why. First: the institutional

2n nature of USG policies is breaking down. Obama had no issues throwing old and trusted allies like Israel to the wolves when it came to extremely ill considered deal with Iran. (Also Saudi Arabia). He also threw Japan under the truck over the Senkaku dispute with China

3n Obama is single handedly responsible for destroying the European Project, by pursuing regime change in Syria & destroying the reset Putin wanted enact by replacing himself with Medvedev who was lied to and conned in Libya. Trump reversed a lot of this. In short what the last

4n 12 years have seen is an extreme personalisation of policy - rather than an institutionalisation. In this i think @rupasubramanya got it right - the grudges that dunces Kamala Pramila & Ro have and the deeply personalised policy space, combined with their need to appease the

5n unrepentant Jihadi vote bank and their dog whistlers like Ilhan Omar, will only make them trenchantly anti India. In that sense this isn’t different from Nixon and the “tilt” in 1971 driven entirely by Nixon’s personal hate of Indira Gandhi. The issue is there is NOTHING

6n repeat NOTHING, india could have done to defray this coalition of India hating Indians and the deep Hinduphobia gaining ground in Democrats. Like the Saudis & Israelis have done it was time to mark the line in the ground clearly. What’s worse is that the Dems have clear plans

7n to screw India over - noticeably the G2 agreement Obama wanted with China where India would be one of the sacrificial goats. To conclude one must hold ones leaders responsible for blunders that could have been retrospectively forecast. What Modi did with Trump was not one....

8n rather it was a high risk strategy which almost payed off, and the down side was that there was nothing to lose and everything to gain. So when a confirmed Modi hater like me to a telling you to lay off Modi, please listen. Let’s attack Modi for what he does wrong, not for

9n genuine smart policy moves that were undermined by outrageous voter manipulation. Also to note is that Trump put up an impressive showing, and this shows the PMO did better research on the US elections that fraud pollsters like Nate Silver & co. Moreover had COVID not

10n intervened Trump was almost certainly on to winning big. Nobody could’ve predicted COVID. So for eternally pessimistic me, on this 100/100 for @narendramodi.