India PM Narendra Modi walks side by side with Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif
On the 25th day of December 2015, the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi tweeted “Looking forward to meeting PM Nawaz Sharif in Lahore today afternoon, where I will drop by on my way back to Delhi,” shortly after announcing that he had spoken to PM Nawaz Sharif to wish him for his birthday.
The event was reported across the world with lot of enthusiasm. Some of the headlines were:
It is “the biggest surprise of all” of Modi’s diplomatic moves since he came to power on May 26, 2014, for which he had invited leaders of the South Asian countries.
– Time
Modi stuns all with surprise stopover in Lahore
– The Hindu
Modi returns to India after surprise Pakistan visit.
– The Dawn
The common word in all the reporting mentioned above and otherwise was “surprise”.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is not the first leader to make a surprise visit to another country. US President Barack Obama made regular unannounced visits to Afghanistan, as did Britain’s Prime Minister Tony Blair to Iraq. But these visits were termed ‘surprise visits’ because of security reasons and were to the defence base of their own country in the foreign soil.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit feels sudden and unscripted because of the ground-breaking diplomatic nature of the trip. It’s the first trip to the country by an Indian head of state in 11 years. And it was as dangerous as Obama visiting Afghanistan or Blair visiting Iraq.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Pakistan visit could be compared to Egyptian President Anwar Sadat’s unannounced visit to Israel, on 20 November 1977, where he was received by Prime Minister Menachem Begin and he went on to give a historic address at the Knesset.
President Sadat had publicly signalled his willingness to break the pan-Arab front against negotiating with Israel in a bid to pursue, as he put it, a “permanent peace based on justice”.
Mr Sadat’s visit led, within two years, to the Camp David Agreements and the peace treaty with Egypt. But it horrified many in the Arab world, and Mr Sadat paid the ultimate price in 1981 when he was assassinated for his role in signing the treaty by Islamist members of his own army.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi doesn’t face such threat from his own army and hence it looks that the visit might pave the way for improving relations with Pakistan.
‘Surprise’ is an important tool for an effective leader. Surprisingly it is not used effectively. In fact “Most leaders avoid surprise. Most organizations hate surprises. It makes sense. Predictability and control are the unquestioned holy grails of management. But could we be overlooking an essential and critical ingredient of breakthrough leadership and innovation? (www.innovation-point.com)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has certainly used “surprise” as effective tool. Surprise is nothing but unexpected events. And if a leader is confident to handle unexpected events, he can use surprise as an effective tool. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been successful in his initiative is evident from the all around praise of his “surprise”.
By Sandeep Singh
Sandeep obtained a Post Graduation in Rural Development from Xavier Institute of Social Sciences (XISS) Ranchi. He s also specialized in Media Planning from the Mudra Institute of Communications Ahmedabad (MICA), Ahmedabad & in General Business Management from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Bangalore
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