Modi is in the weird place of being an elected authoritarian, and so he uses that one foot in both worlds-ness to try and be the diplomatic pivot between those spheres.
The problem, is that Modi is a terrible diplomat, and people come to India not because of his talents, but because India is a sleeping economic giant that could pop off at any instant depending on how their government and society shakes out. Keep in mind that India is still a very much under construction country. India being a collection of colonies and princedoms us still in living memory, and even if it wasn’t, America almost a quarter of a millenia old and even then it is an under construction state and society.