- Fareed Zakaria called PM Modi India's most consequential leader since Nehru
- The journalist noted that PM Modi shows no signs of fatigue after over a decade in power
- Zakaria added that a trade deal between India and US is only possible if India handles it a certain way
Veteran US journalist Fareed Zakaria has described Prime Minister Narendra Modi as "India's most consequential leader since Jawaharlal Nehru", adding that most long-serving leaders tend to falter after a decade of power.
"Leaders start to lose it after 10 years, which leads to their downfall," he said, in an exclusive interview with NDTV's Editor-in-Chief Rahul Kanwal. "You don't see that in Modi's case. Part of it is weak opposition, part of it is his discipline. He does not seem to be fatiguing."
Zakaria went further, placing PM Modi in a long historical arc of Indian leadership.
"Modi is the most consequential Indian Prime Minister since Nehru," he said.
"India is growing at 6.5 per cent, the fastest-growing large economy. There is a degree of contentment. The BJP is a well-organised party, works very hard at elections. Modi has been able to play this role of outsider-insider in a very clever way," Zakaria told NDTV.
Nehru led India from independence in 1947 until his death in 1964, shaping the country's early democratic institutions, foreign policy of non-alignment, and a state-led, socialist economic model.
"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," Zakaria added.
Fareed Zakaria, an Indian-born American journalist and author, is one of the world's most influential foreign affairs commentators. He hosts Fareed Zakaria GPS on CNN and writes a weekly column for The Washington Post.
Zakaria further said that a trade deal between India and US is only possible if India handles it a certain way.
"If Prime Minister Modi were to say to him, look, you're a politician, I'm a politician, I can't make these concessions on agriculture. I have elections to face. But in return, here are the things I can do. And then you know the things Trump cares about -- investment in America, buy some American products, maybe defence products, whatever it is. I think there's a deal to be had," Zakaria said.
Prime Minister Modi and Trump held a phone conversation on December 11 and discussed India-US bilateral economic partnership amid signs of the two sides inching closer to firming up a much-awaited trade deal.
