Clearly when Xi Jinping sneezes, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is felled by the Chinese flu. No more the roaring Modi chest. All one hears from the Modi PMO is the wheezing and coughing dressed in diplomatese. When the Chinese obstructed the sanctioning of the terrorist outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar at the UN, Prime Minister Modi's government complained, justly and bitterly, publicly and privately, to the Chinese but to no avail. Having already challenged India with Pathankot and subsequent "talks on again and off again" Pakistan, through China, successfully checkmated PM Modi on Masood Azhar. The big-chested Modi was left shrunken and with a humongous black eye. China had stood its ground. It didn't blink. All the mutual state visits and hugs of the recent past between Xi Jinping and Narendra Modi couldn't stop the internal bleeding that Modi-Xi relationship suffered in the undiplomatic bruising Modi and unfortunately India had suffered in the imbroglio surrounding Masood Azhar at the UN. To restore his own standing and India's credibility as an effective international player the next move had to come from Modi. As he licked his wounds, a plan must have been underway to give China a diplomatic shock of its own. Then his government issued an e-visa to the well known Uyghur activist Dolkun Isa of the US funded Uyghur World Congress to come and speak at a US sponsored conference in India where he and Dalai Lama were among the scheduled speakers. The Modi government says it subsequently discovered the red corner notice issued on Isa by China to the Interpol. China would have pointed it out to India even if India hadn't discovered it on its own. The red corner notice in Isa's case is of an ancient vintage, issued several years ago. India ought to have known that fact before it decided to issue the visa. Countries regularly issue these notices against people wanted by them; and for reasons of national sovereignty, national pride and liberty powerful countries regularly ignore these notices. Despite the red corner notice being in place Isa had travelled to the USA some years ago to receive an award during the time Xi was on a visit there. The red corner notice isn't worth the paper it is written on. What matters is the international clout of the country issuing the red corner notice, as perceived by the country ignoring or respecting such a notice. Although China complained about Isa's visit to the US, the latter clearly didn't care enough about what the Chinese had thought or felt about Isa's visa to the US to cancel it. On the other hand PM Modi obviously cared very much - some might say too much - about what China thought about Isa's visit to India; and certainly lot more than Xi did about India's view of China's actions in the Azhar case at the UN. Under Chinese pressure Modi climbed down from his thundering oratorical perch. India cancelled the Isa visa. Another day, another Modi wrought humiliation for India. He must have and ought to have known that a cancellation of such a visa by India - pressure or no pressure from the Chinese - would bring further diplomatic humiliation to India? Had the matter ended there and India didn't cancel the visas for two other Chinese dissidents Lu Jinghua and Ray Wong it would have been easy to ignore the Modi-wrought international humiliation of India. The cancellation by Modi government of visa of several persons in disfavour with the Chinese government has made it impossible to ignore. It has weakened India in the world. Many governments across the world and Pakistan in particular (it has already been toying with India vis-à-vis Pathankot and Kashmir) may now try to further test India's mettle. Modi seen to be wanting in intestinal fortitude in his response to the Chinese pressure may want to re-examine his approach to the world affairs. The diaspora has been subjected to some fine Modi speeches in places like Toronto, Wimbledon and Madison Square Garden. We then felt buoyed by Modi the orator. In retrospect, his oratory abroad stands exposed as vacuous. In our heightened sense of genuine pride in India we feel absolutely let down by Modi's self inflicted and obscene public humiliation by the Chinese.
