Just to remind my readers, Japan conferred The Grand Cordon of the Order of the Paulownia Flowers, its highest Imperial Award in November 2014 on Dr Manmohan Singh, after (this is important to state) he was no longer the PM and this award would have not just have served no political purpose of scoring any points with the new Indian government, but also would have actively upset the new dispensation. How truly deserving must one have to be to be considered more important than diplomatic relations with a country the size of India (and in 2014, when Dr MMS demitted office, India was an impressive economy and a powerful democracy on the world stage)? What must be the collective weight of one’s achievements and body of work for someone to be honoured in such a fashion? What must be that person’s contribution to humanity in general and Japan in particular? The mind boggles with the sheer respect the Japanese nation showed Dr MMS despite every reason to withhold such an obvious display of gratitude to someone so recently out of power, especially given the incumbent would so badly be pissed off at it.
Of course, the less said about Nehru the better. But we need to speak of him since the present occupant of that chair seems to think he is in some (or rather, every) way better than the first occupier of that post.
In 2022, the Government of India (or the BJP, or its PR agency) hired (and probably flew down specially) Indians (or at least Indian-looking) people to shout pro-Modi slogans and make an ass of themselves in Japan when the sitting PM of this country visited for the QUAD meeting, which included no less than the POTUS (widely acknowledged to be the most powerful person in the world) Joe Biden, who had no Americans lining the streets shouting his glory when he passed through.
How this mighty, ancient civilisation has fallen!
