India / Obama praised Manmohan Singh in book, didn't mention PM Modi: Tharoor

New Delhi: Days after buzz spread over former US President Barack Obama describing Congress leader Rahul Gandhi as a “nervous” leader in his book, Shashi Tharoor took to Twitter to mention that Prime Minister Narendra Modi “is not mentioned by name at all” in the memoirs. Tharoor wrote that he could manage to get an advance copy of Obama’s book titled ‘A Promised Land’, slated to be released tomorrow.

Declaring that he had read every bit on India in the book, he mentioned that Obama has written a great deal about former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh while describing him as “wise, thoughtful, & scrupulously honest”.

“I have got hold of an advance copy of @BarackObama’s #APromisedLand & though i haven’t read every page, I did read every bit on India flagged in the Index. cBig news: There isn’t much. Bigger news: in 902 pages, @narendramodi is not mentioned by name at all,” Tharoor wrote in a series of tweets.

“Huge praise for Dr ManMohan Singh who is warmly described as “wise, thoughtful, &scrupulously honest”, “a man of uncommon wisdom& decency” with whom he enjoyed “a warm & productive relationship” though MMS was “cautious in foreign policy”. His regard & respect shine through,” he added.

Giving us more glimpses from the book, Tharoor said that Obama has shown a concern about “impulses of violence, greed, corruption, nationalism, racism & religious intolerance” in India.

“More than anything, though, my fascination with India had to do with Mahatma Gandhi. Along with Lincoln, King, &Mandela, Gandhi had profoundly influenced my thinking,” Tharoor quotes Obama as saying in the book.

“But he worries about impulses of violence, greed, corruption, nationalism, racism & religious intolerance,” the Congress leader writes.

“They seemed to lie in wait everywhere, ready to resurface whenever growth rates stalled or demographics changed or a charismatic leader chose to ride the wave of people’s fears & resentments. And as much as I might have wished otherwise, there was no Mahatma Gandhi around,” he again quotes from the book.

“Difficult to imagine that the Sanghis who have been rejoicing on social media about one sentence in the memoir will draw much comfort from these reflections. They offer a foretaste of what Vol.2 is likely to tell us about India in a post-Manmohan Singh era, when Obama returned,” he said, taking a subtle dig at the saffron brigade.