Letter to BS: Trump to Modi, mature leaders just hug and bear it

Like Trump, Modi was equally put off when the ebullient Congress President Rahul Gandhi hugged him in Parliament recently

In an election year, one wouldn’t know who will embrace whom. Perhaps Facebook can reveal perfume preferences of leaders, both national and international. Often the waft of one may be anathema to another. One is ecstatic if the other spreads the same whiff. Mature leaders just hug and bear it.

If Donald Trump was naive to show a wee bit of hesitation in his close encounter with our Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Modi was equally put off when the ebullient Congress President Rahul Gandhi hugged him in Parliament recently. Individual hugs can still be managed with greater aplomb and poise than parties which have a complicated concoction of caste, creed or class. Here, on the contrary, a party would hate to hug another flaunting similar aroma. Leaders can get away, holding their breath during such dalliance, but for parties it is a vital matter of populating the benches inside the House post-ballot. For them, this would remain an agony. 

R Narayanan, Navi Mumbai

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