Modi In UK: Shadow Over The Show

The past kept intruding into Narendra Modis spectacular London visit. Still, he and his host David Cameron won the day by focussing on the future .

- Lance Price

By the time Air India One took off from London’s Heathrow Airport, Narendra Modi had achieved what he came here to do. His departure went virtually unnoticed, with the eyes of the world now focused on Paris and the unfolding tragedy there. But while events on the international stage barely left Modi and his team time to reflect on the impact of his UK visit, they had reason to be satisfied with the political and economic rewards it brought.

Not that Narendra Modi had it all his own way. There was a wide and diverse selection of people doing their utmost to take the shine off his visit with their protests and denunciations of him. It became something of a three-day long battle to see who could make the loudest noise and garner the most publicity. But with the British government determined to do everything it could to make him feel—and appear—welcome, it was a battle Modi was always going to win.

If the view from the windows of Air India One took in Wembley Stadium as it gained altitude, the VIP passengers would have seen the famous arch lit in the colours of the French tricolour: blue, white and red. Just a few hours earlier the tribute had been in saffron, white and green. The 135 metre high London Eye, the iconic Ferris wheel on the Thames, was similarly illuminated. The RAF’s Red Arrows display team staged a fly-past in Modi’s honour with the jets’ trademark exhaust also billowing out India’s national colours.

None of this is normal. Prime ministers come and go through London all the time. They are rarely, if ever, given a reception remotely approaching the one laid on for Narendra Modi. That prompted many in the media here to ask the obvious question. Why? What’s so special about this guy?