On Japan tour, Modi is seen as India's rising sun

The only things redder than the red carpet that Japanese government officials have unrolled for Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi today are the faces of his dissidents in his home State, and his detractors elsewhere who are looking to declare him persona non grata on his home turf.

On the same day that Keshubhai Patel was painting a grim picture in the media projecting Gujarat as as a living hell for people, and when the Maruti Suzuki plant in Manesar remains locked down following last week’s horrific trade union violence, Japanese officials are reinforcing their faith in him to provide a stable and business-friendly environment for Japanese investments. And Japanese businesses are putting their money where their mouth is.

[caption id=“attachment_387272” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Modi is being received with protocol befitting a Cabinet-ranking Minister of the Union, which in the Warrant of Precedence, is higher than that of a chief minister outside the state. AP[/caption]

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Modi is being received with protocol befitting a Cabinet-ranking Minister of the Union, which in the Warrant of Precedence, is higher than that of a chief minister outside the state. The symbolism of the reception protocol is noteworthy, particularly because it contrasts with the reluctance in western capitals to dissociate the 2002 Gujarat riots from their assessment of Modi’s record in office.

Influential Japanese media have used Modi’s four-day visit that began on Sunday as an occasion to reacquaint their readers and leaders with the larger story of Gujarat’s rise as a business-friendly state under Modi’s watch, and the evolving perception of Modi himself as potential Prime Minister.

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Industrial safety is uppermost in Japanese businessmen’s minds today, given the shocking events at the Maruti Suzuki plant in Manesar last week, and the timing of Modi’s visit, during which he will also meet top Suzuki executives, couldn’t have been more propitious from an Indian perspective.

At a time when Central and Harayana leaders have failed to reassure investors outraged by the attack at the Manesar plant and other incidents of violence targeting corporate executives, Modi’s presence among the community that’s been most severely affected by the Manesar violence is having a becalming effect.

Faced with the prospect of losing over Rs 50 crore a day, Suzuki officials are justifiably incensed, and although the violence happened in another state, Modi isn’t playing politics on the issue, but delivering a confidence-building message on behalf of not just Gujarat but the whole of India.

In an interview to a leading Japanese business daily ahead of his visit, Modi articulated a pan-Indian vision, noting that Gujarat’s developmental model, with its emphasis on building infrastructure and providing an enabling environment for international businesses to thrive, could be applied across India. People across India, he said, had expectations of a better lifestyle, and only economic growth could deliver that.

The Japanese newspaper noted that in contrast to many other states, Gujarat was a haven for international investors: its government, headed by Modi, was responsive to investors’ needs and, just as important, could deliver, it added. It is this that reinforced the perception among international leaders that Modi is someone they could do business with. He is, it intoned, a strikingly different leader who had earned their respect.

Over the next three days, Modi will attend 44 events and meet with top leaders from both the ruling party and the opposition, including the Deputy Prime Minister Katsuya Okada and former Prime ministers Yasuo Fukuda and Shinzo Abe.

In addition to meeting top Japanese industry leaders, Modi will travel by bullet train from Tokyo to Hamamatsu and then on to Nagoya, a 350 km distance that the Shinkansen does in about 100 minutes.

Modi is looking to introduce the bullet train project on the Ahmedabad-Surat-Mumbai-Pune route; additionally, Gujarat is in talks with Japanese officials to set up two Japanese industrial parks in Gujarat as part of the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor. All his public events will be streamed live here.