WITH G7 Summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has begun his third innings in navigating international politics with a bang. Though he was attending his fifth consecutive G7 Summit, this was his first trip abroad after becoming the Prime Minister for the record third time. And his message was loud and clear: India’s election results were a “victory for the democratic world”. The uniqueness and magnitude of the Indian elections can be understood from these figures: more than 2,600 political parties, more than 1 million polling booths, more than 5 million Electronic Voting Machines, 15 million polling staff, and about 970 million voters, out of which 640 million exercised their franchise.
As PM Modi pointed out at the G7, this was the biggest festival of democracy in the world and the biggest in the history of humanity; and it was an occasion to showcase India’s growing global importance in the global arena. It is for the first time in six decades that the people of India have given PM Modi the opportunity to serve them for the third consecutive time. That this should happen in a year when democracies around the world were facing the electorate in a phase of political churning should count. US President Joe Biden is going to face a tough re-election bid in November.
UK’s Rishi Sunak and France’s Emmanuel Macron have announced snap polls. A rare hat-trick in democratic elections gives PM Modi an unprecedented power to navigate troubled waters in an era of uncertainty, unabated global conflicts, economic downturn and climate change.
This year, the summit was organised in Italy as the country is the President of the G7 grouping for the year 2024. G7 is a close club of seven countries which includes four from Europe (France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom), besides Canada, Japan and the United States. Although the Group was envisaged at a time when these respective countries also represented the largest and the most powerful economies in the world, with an equally significant geopolitical heft; this is far from true today. G7 often comes under criticism for its increasing irrelevance. India at $3.9 trillion today is bigger than at least four G7 economies.
Although India has been getting regular invites to G7 from 2019, this year is especially significant. Outside G7, India has proven its credentials as the quintessential leader from the Global South by getting the African Union to be a part of the G20 grouping, making it officially G20+1. At the latest G7 Summit, for the first time PM Modi met his Western counterparts after a long election and purported attempts by foreign powers to influence Indian elections or criticise its democracy. India under Modi’s leadership has become an almost $4-trillion economy and a formidable voice on the global platform.
A visit to the G7 Summit as a leader of the Global South was an apt way for PM Modi to initiate his third innings in navigating international politics. Apart from conveying India’s message that it was prepared to lead the search for solutions and impactful pathways to create a better world for future generations, it also allowed Modi to discuss several critical issues. He has begun his third innings with a bang; the future looks brighter.
