While I see your point, I find commuting umpteen hours for a 5 minute conversation that could have been over the phone, over email, or over zoom-skype-jitsi rather soul-sucking.
Everyone’s personal drama is their job, to some extent or another. You don’t get to run a country unless you can get people emotionally invested in you doing so, because if the electorate — be it the whole nation in a democracy or the aristocrats in a monarchy — is not into you, they’ll pick someone else instead of you.
the issue with democracy is that, because it relies on popularity, it selects for self-absorbed sociopaths. Being one is essential for getting elected but a nightmare after election
Yes I assumed you meant Modi as well. Regardless of how I feel about both of them. It could happen any time two “populist” leaders are brought up that way.