Vibhav Kant Upadhyay and Japan go way back in time. Vibhav is the Chairman of India Center Foundation and he has direct access to not only Japan’s official system, but also the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Since Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s time, he has a direct entry in the PMO. He was in very close terms with Sudheendra Kulkarni during Vajpayee’s tenure. He was also close to Sam Pitroda during the Congress reign. He was at his supreme during the Manmohan government. When Narendra Modi became the Chief Minister of Gujarat, ever since then Vibhav has been in terms with him too. It is said that Modi’s first meet with Japanese PM was arranged by Vibhav himself. Since then Vibhav was a regular passenger of CM Modi’s chartered-flight.
In a bid to boost the Indo-Japanese business relations, Vibhav initiated the India Japan Global Partnership Summit back in 2000. Coming month, the summit is once again scheduled to take place. Many corporate biggies and Union Ministers had in advance nodded their presence. But in a turn of events, going by the sources, a lead Japanese Bank has lodged a complaint with PM Modi against Vibhav. Post, which, the CEO of Soft Bank Rajiv Mishra has met up with the PM. Soft Bank is a major investor in India and put in more than Rs 25,000 crore till now in the nation. Henceforth, following the complaint, sources suggest that Modi’s view has changed towards Vibhav and, not surprisingly, it seems that many prominent Union Ministers have since then expressed their inability to join the summit next month. Sources say that a hurt Vibhav approached Nitin Gadkari in search of shelter, but the latter too has separated himself from this matter.