PM Modi's "curious astral energy" finds mention in Boris Johnson's new book

Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson in his memoir "Unleashed" recalled when he first met Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The book, released in the UK this week, dedicates a chapter to the relationship between the UK and India. Johnson describes India's relationship with the UK as being "as good as it has ever been."

“He raised my arm and chanted something or other in Hindi, and though I couldn’t follow it I felt his curious astral energy. I have enjoyed his company ever since – because I reckon he is the change-maker our relationship needs. With Modi, I felt sure, we could not only do a great free-trade deal but also build a long-term partnership, as friends and equals,” he writes.

The "Unleashed" covers his time as London mayor, Brexit campaigner, foreign secretary and prime minister. He credits Modi for being a "change-maker" and essential for building a "long-term partnership" and a "proper free-trade deal."


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Boris Johnson recalls that in 2012, during his first trade trip to India as the Mayor of London, the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) advised him against meeting PM Modi, labelling him a "Hindu nationalist." Despite this, they later met outside City Hall.

The 60-year-old politician-author asserts how much he loves India, being a “veteran” of many Indian weddings because his children with Sikh heritage ex-wife Marina Wheeler trace their roots to the country.

Johnson also recalls his visit to India as prime minister in January 2022, which he describes as a "tremendous success" and a "much-needed morale boost."

PM Modi-Boris Johnson bond

During a visit to India in April 2022, post Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Boris Johnson aimed to reduce India's reliance on Russia. He said the welcome he received was “like an orchestrated orgy of state-sponsored Beatlemania”. He said he understood “the reasons for India’s post-war non-alignment with the West” and “India’s dependence on Russian hydrocarbons”.

Boris Johnson questioned India's alignment with Russia and China, suggesting it might be time for a change. He highlighted to Indians that "Russian missiles were turning out to be less accurate statistically" than his own first serve in tennis, posing the question, “Did they really want to keep Russia as their main supplier of military hardware?”

The trip culminated in agreements between the UK and India to collaborate on various military technologies, including submarines and helicopters, despite initial reservations from the Ministry of Defence about India's ties with Russia.

'Queen Elizabeth II had bone cancer': Johnson in memoir

In his memoir, he also claimed that Queen Elizabeth II was diagnosed with bone cancer before her death in September 2022 at the age of 96. "I had known for a year or more that she had a form of bone cancer, and her doctors were worried that at any time she could enter a sharp decline," Johnson says in his book. "She seemed pale and more stooped, and she had dark ­bruising on her hands and wrists, probably from drips or injections.'"

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The British government and the royal family had not previously shared any information regarding the specifics of Queen Elizabeth's death. An official death certificate published a week after Queen Elizabeth died listed the cause of death as "old age."

Johnson discloses a private conversation he had with Queen Elizabeth at Balmoral two days before she died.

He told her about the “well-known” difficulties the UK govt was having in persuading India to “take a tougher line with the Russians” on the Ukraine war and she told him something Jawaharlal Nehru had told her in the 1950s. “‘He told me that India will always side with Russia, and that some things will never change. They just are,’” he quotes the Queen as saying.