US President Barack Obama and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday exchanged anecdotes, ideas and their vision about a “transformative relationship” over halibut on the one side and warm water on the other.
It was a get-to-know meeting but seemed more formal and structured than one might have imagined. On a long table, they sat across from each other like a formal delegation where food happened to be served.
Obama welcomed Modi with a “kem cho?” at the White House and escorted him inside. Modi drank warm water while the others tasted delicacies like halibut and saffron rice. First Lady Michele Obama was not present as she was travelling.
Obama was accompanied by his top deputies, including Vice President Jo Biden, National Security Adviser Susan Rice and Nisha Biswal, the assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia and herself Gujarati. It was probably Biswal who coached Obama with his perfect kem cho.
But at the other end of The Mall, on Capitol Hill, a few Congressmen had already were marking their dissent. A group calling itself the Coalition Against Genocide got 11 Congressmen to sign an anti-Modi letter and send it to Obama.
The letter said that violence against Muslims and Christians had “increased” in the first 100 days of the Modi government. “Your meeting next week provides an opportunity to discuss religious inclusion and the protection of religious minorities in India,” the letter said. It has been signed by Congressmen Keith Ellison, Joseph Pitts and John Conyers, among others.
This is not the end of trouble or negative publicity for the Indian prime minister. On Monday, while Modi has official bilateral talks, the Human Rights Commission in the House of Representatives will hold a briefing on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots titled “Thirty Years of Impunity: The Anti-Sikh Pogroms in India”. The behavior of Modi supporters in New York has not helped matters, especially after some of them roughed up television journalist Rajdeep Sardesai.
The anti-Modi brigade has done its event management as well as the BJP political managers. His rally in New York was countered by scores of protesters outside Madison Square Garden, carrying posters about the 2002 riots in Gujarat.
Bearing gifts
Modi brought interesting and imaginative personal gifts for Obama and the first family – a special order reprint of the Gita as interpreted by Mahatama Gandhi and something that would touch Obama’s heart. It was Martin Luther King Jr. memorabilia from his 1959 India visit, including an AIR recording of his speech and a photo of King at Rajghat.
There are separate gifts for Sasha and Malia, Obama’s daughters. In addition, a series of official gifts will be exchanged on Tuesday before official talks begin.
It’s Morning in New York
Modi began the day in New York meeting a variety of top business executives to convince the hard-nosed bunch that he would clean up India’s act. He listened to their complaints and promised to act on their concerns to make the environment more business-friendly.
It seems that some of Modi’s slogan-laced messaging got through to the CEOs who gave exuberant sound bytes to waiting cameras. Ajay Banga of Mastercard said he was “fixated on” Modi’s idea of digital India and wanted to help.
BlackRock, the world’s largest asset-management company announced a global investor summit in India in 2015 and Boeing made appropriately good noises too.
CEOs of various companies came out of the breakfast meeting praising Modi’s ability to listen and answer questions. They said he was “charismatic leader”, “excellent listener”, and “very focused”.
Modi was frank when he said he wanted to “convert the Supreme Court judgment on coal allocation into an opportunity to move forward and clean up the past”. The court last week quashed the allocation of 214 out of 218 coal blocks allotted to various companies since 1993, allowing the government to take over the 42 functioning ones.
“India is open-minded,” Syed Akbaruddin, the MEA spokesman, quoted Modi as telling the gathering. "We want change. Change that is not one-sided."
The array of businessmen included Cargill's President and CEO David W MacLennan, Caterpillar's Douglas Oberhelman, AES' Andres Giluski, Merck's Kenneth Frazier, co-founder and co-CEO of Carlyle Group David Rubenstein, Hospira's Michael Ball and Warburg Pincus' Charles Kaye.
“The PM wants to get things done and so do we,” said Giluski after the meeting. His company AES has a power sector in Odisha. Indira Nooyi of Pepsico said the meeting was “excellent”.
Afternoon with the Thinkers
Modi spent Monday afternoon at the Council on Foreign Relations, where he talked the thinkers, the tinkerers, the policymakers. In some ways talking to a CFR audience helps because many of the members are former ambassadors and lesser mortals who maintain their links with the government. Convincing the think tank crowd is important because they informally advise the administration with papers and policy inputs.
Taking the bull by the horn, Modi did some plain talking. “And I have requested the US that please do not repeat the mistake of Iraq, and it should be slow in withdrawing, and let it [Afghanistan] stand on its own, and only then it can stop the Taliban from entering and raising its head there,” he said.
India is deeply worried about the situation in Afghanistan affecting its own fate if the Taliban plays for power once most of the US troops depart by the end of 2014. Modi said that he had explained to US Secretary of State John Kerry at great length that both India and the US should work together in Afghanistan.
"We want that Afghanistan should be stable and march towards development, and the security measures of the US has created stability and Afghanistan has now marched to new results" after presidential elections, Modi said.
His speech at CFR had all the themes that he has been emphasising over the past two days and before in his interview with Farid Zakaria of CNN. The slogans of 3D (democracy, demography and demand), the Asian century, and that terrorism divides, tourism unites were all there. The only new addition to the list was G-All, a somewhat obvious take on how the world should work together rather than through groups of G-2, G7 or G-20.
Commenting on the big question of how to reboot Indo-US relations, Modi acknowledged that there would be difficulties just as there are “between a husband and wife.” But he emphasised the long-term commitment, which should deepen confidence in Washington and New York.
The most explicit question was on terrorism and Modi said all terrorism in India was “exported”, and not home-grown. This may not be a valid assertion given the growth in radicalism among some Indian Muslims, a tiny group of whom are said to have joined the ISIS. But Modi said that he was confident that Indian Muslims will not fall for the call of al-Qaeda.
US observers were also interested in India’s relations China since Modi just hosted President Xi Jinping in New Delhi for a visit that was overshadowed by a border incursion. Modi was asked if an international arbiter should help the two sides to come to an agreement. The questioner obviously was unfamiliar with India’s traditional opposition to any third-party intervention in any dispute it has with neighbors. Modi said flatly that no arbitration was required.
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It was a get-to-know meeting but seemed more formal and structured than one might have imagined. On a long table, they sat across from each other like a formal delegation where food happened to be served.
Obama welcomed Modi with a “kem cho?” at the White House and escorted him inside. Modi drank warm water while the others tasted delicacies like halibut and saffron rice. First Lady Michele Obama was not present as she was travelling.
Obama was accompanied by his top deputies, including Vice President Jo Biden, National Security Adviser Susan Rice and Nisha Biswal, the assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia and herself Gujarati. It was probably Biswal who coached Obama with his perfect kem cho.
But at the other end of The Mall, on Capitol Hill, a few Congressmen had already were marking their dissent. A group calling itself the Coalition Against Genocide got 11 Congressmen to sign an anti-Modi letter and send it to Obama.
The letter said that violence against Muslims and Christians had “increased” in the first 100 days of the Modi government. “Your meeting next week provides an opportunity to discuss religious inclusion and the protection of religious minorities in India,” the letter said. It has been signed by Congressmen Keith Ellison, Joseph Pitts and John Conyers, among others.
This is not the end of trouble or negative publicity for the Indian prime minister. On Monday, while Modi has official bilateral talks, the Human Rights Commission in the House of Representatives will hold a briefing on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots titled “Thirty Years of Impunity: The Anti-Sikh Pogroms in India”. The behavior of Modi supporters in New York has not helped matters, especially after some of them roughed up television journalist Rajdeep Sardesai.
The anti-Modi brigade has done its event management as well as the BJP political managers. His rally in New York was countered by scores of protesters outside Madison Square Garden, carrying posters about the 2002 riots in Gujarat.
Bearing gifts
Modi brought interesting and imaginative personal gifts for Obama and the first family – a special order reprint of the Gita as interpreted by Mahatama Gandhi and something that would touch Obama’s heart. It was Martin Luther King Jr. memorabilia from his 1959 India visit, including an AIR recording of his speech and a photo of King at Rajghat.
There are separate gifts for Sasha and Malia, Obama’s daughters. In addition, a series of official gifts will be exchanged on Tuesday before official talks begin.
It’s Morning in New York
Modi began the day in New York meeting a variety of top business executives to convince the hard-nosed bunch that he would clean up India’s act. He listened to their complaints and promised to act on their concerns to make the environment more business-friendly.
It seems that some of Modi’s slogan-laced messaging got through to the CEOs who gave exuberant sound bytes to waiting cameras. Ajay Banga of Mastercard said he was “fixated on” Modi’s idea of digital India and wanted to help.
BlackRock, the world’s largest asset-management company announced a global investor summit in India in 2015 and Boeing made appropriately good noises too.
CEOs of various companies came out of the breakfast meeting praising Modi’s ability to listen and answer questions. They said he was “charismatic leader”, “excellent listener”, and “very focused”.
Modi was frank when he said he wanted to “convert the Supreme Court judgment on coal allocation into an opportunity to move forward and clean up the past”. The court last week quashed the allocation of 214 out of 218 coal blocks allotted to various companies since 1993, allowing the government to take over the 42 functioning ones.
“India is open-minded,” Syed Akbaruddin, the MEA spokesman, quoted Modi as telling the gathering. "We want change. Change that is not one-sided."
The array of businessmen included Cargill's President and CEO David W MacLennan, Caterpillar's Douglas Oberhelman, AES' Andres Giluski, Merck's Kenneth Frazier, co-founder and co-CEO of Carlyle Group David Rubenstein, Hospira's Michael Ball and Warburg Pincus' Charles Kaye.
“The PM wants to get things done and so do we,” said Giluski after the meeting. His company AES has a power sector in Odisha. Indira Nooyi of Pepsico said the meeting was “excellent”.
Afternoon with the Thinkers
Modi spent Monday afternoon at the Council on Foreign Relations, where he talked the thinkers, the tinkerers, the policymakers. In some ways talking to a CFR audience helps because many of the members are former ambassadors and lesser mortals who maintain their links with the government. Convincing the think tank crowd is important because they informally advise the administration with papers and policy inputs.
Taking the bull by the horn, Modi did some plain talking. “And I have requested the US that please do not repeat the mistake of Iraq, and it should be slow in withdrawing, and let it [Afghanistan] stand on its own, and only then it can stop the Taliban from entering and raising its head there,” he said.
India is deeply worried about the situation in Afghanistan affecting its own fate if the Taliban plays for power once most of the US troops depart by the end of 2014. Modi said that he had explained to US Secretary of State John Kerry at great length that both India and the US should work together in Afghanistan.
"We want that Afghanistan should be stable and march towards development, and the security measures of the US has created stability and Afghanistan has now marched to new results" after presidential elections, Modi said.
His speech at CFR had all the themes that he has been emphasising over the past two days and before in his interview with Farid Zakaria of CNN. The slogans of 3D (democracy, demography and demand), the Asian century, and that terrorism divides, tourism unites were all there. The only new addition to the list was G-All, a somewhat obvious take on how the world should work together rather than through groups of G-2, G7 or G-20.
Commenting on the big question of how to reboot Indo-US relations, Modi acknowledged that there would be difficulties just as there are “between a husband and wife.” But he emphasised the long-term commitment, which should deepen confidence in Washington and New York.
The most explicit question was on terrorism and Modi said all terrorism in India was “exported”, and not home-grown. This may not be a valid assertion given the growth in radicalism among some Indian Muslims, a tiny group of whom are said to have joined the ISIS. But Modi said that he was confident that Indian Muslims will not fall for the call of al-Qaeda.
US observers were also interested in India’s relations China since Modi just hosted President Xi Jinping in New Delhi for a visit that was overshadowed by a border incursion. Modi was asked if an international arbiter should help the two sides to come to an agreement. The questioner obviously was unfamiliar with India’s traditional opposition to any third-party intervention in any dispute it has with neighbors. Modi said flatly that no arbitration was required.