Former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership style, saying he has ‘resisted the hubris of power’ despite being one of the most influential leaders in the world.
Abbott, who attended the Raisina Dialogue here last week, said Modi has consistently set an example by attending the opening session of the global conference to listen to the keynote speaker rather than deliver a speech himself.
“At every dialogue so far, Prime Minister Modi has set the example, attending the opening session, to hear the principal guest – last year the Prime Minister of New Zealand; this year the President of Finland – but not speaking himself. After the US and Chinese presidents, he’s probably the most immediately powerful person in the world, yet he’s not too proud to listen as well as to lead,” Abbot wrote in an article titled ‘What Davos Should Be‘ published on 13 March.
Despite over a decade in office, perhaps because of his youth as a kind of Hindu monk, Modi has thusfar managed to resist the hubris of power.
Raisina Dialogue 2026 – the flagship conference on geopolitics and geo-economics organised by the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) in partnership with the Ministry of External Affairs, was held in New Delhi on March 5 – 7.
“Despite over a decade in office, perhaps because of his youth as a kind of Hindu monk, Modi has thus far managed to resist the hubris of power,” he said.
Abbot added that although Modi is among the most powerful leaders globally, he has shown humility by choosing to listen as well as lead. “After the US and Chinese presidents, he’s probably the most immediately powerful person in the world, yet he’s not too proud to listen as well as to lead,” Abbott said.
Abbott also rejected claims that India under the Bharatiya Janata Party has become authoritarian, calling such assertions unfounded. “And as for this notion that India, under the BJP, has somehow become an authoritarian state — that’s total BS,” he said.
Abbott served as the 28th prime minister of Australia from 2013 to 2015. He was the leader of the Liberal Party from 2009 to 2015 and was a member of parliament for the New South Wales division of Warringah from 1994 to 2019.
A country with free and fair elections, a vibrant media landscape and an independent judiciary cannot be described as being on the path to dictatorship, Abbott said.
“No country with free and fair elections, a riotously free media, and a robustly independent judiciary is in serious danger of dictatorship,” he said.
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