Narendra Modi - US Visit (post all articles here)

[MokshaVimukthi]

http://online.wsj.com/articles/narendra-modi-an-invitation-to-make-in-india-1411687511

Unleashing India's Energy and Drive - Article by Sri. Narandra Modi.

There is a high tide of hope for change in India. This May, across India's immense diversity, 1.25 billion people spoke unequivocally for political stability, good governance and rapid development. India has a government with a majority in the Lok Sabha, our lower house of parliament, for the first time in 30 years. A young nation with 800 million people under age 35, India is brimming with optimism and confidence. The young people's energy, enthusiasm and enterprise are India's greatest strength. Unleashing those attributes is my government's biggest mission.

We will pursue this mission by eliminating unnecessary laws and regulations, making bureaucratic processes easier and shorter, and ensuring that our government is more transparent, responsive and accountable. It has been said that doing the thing right is as important as doing the right thing.

We will create world-class infrastructure that India badly needs to accelerate growth and meet people's basic needs. We will make our cities and towns habitable, sustainable and smart; and we will make our villages the new engines of economic transformation. "Make in India" is our commitment—and an invitation to all—to turn India into a new global manufacturing hub. We will do what it takes to make it a reality.

We ran our election campaign on the promise of inclusive development. To me, that means many things: skills education, and opportunity; safety, dignity and rights for those in every section of our society, especially women; a bank account for every Indian; affordable health care within everyone's reach; sanitation for all by 2019; a roof over every head by 2022; electricity for every household; and connectivity to every village. In addressing these daunting challenges, I draw confidence from countless extraordinary stories of ordinary Indians that I have seen through decades of travel across India.

I also strongly believe in the possibilities of technology and innovation to transform governance, empower people, provide affordable solutions for societal challenges and reach people in ways that were unimaginable not so long ago. The number of cell phones in India has gone up from about 40 million to more than 900 million in a decade; our country is already the second-largest market for smart phones, with sales growing ever faster. When I think of the growth in computing power and storage capacity and its miniaturization that the world has witnessed over the past two decades, I am confident that this can be replicated in renewable energy. With solar and wind power, thousands of Indian villages will be able to get access quickly to reliable, affordable and clean energy, without waiting for large, faraway conventional power plants to be built.

For this reason, India's journey to prosperity can be a more sustainable and environmentally sensitive one than the path followed by countries that came of age in earlier eras. This is a journey of our choice, rooted in our tradition that worships nature's bounties.

India will pursue its dreams in partnership with our international friends. History tells us that India's natural instinct is to be open to the world. India will be open and friendly—for business, ideas, research, innovations and travel. In the coming months, you will feel the difference even before you begin your travel to India.

The United States is our natural global partner. India and the U.S. embody the enduring and universal relevance of their shared values. The thriving Indian-American community in the U.S. is a metaphor for the potential of our partnership, and for the possibilities of an environment that nurtures enterprise and rewards hard work. Our strengths in information technology are especially important for leadership in the digital age. The partnership between our businesses takes place in the comfort and certainty of similar political systems and shared commitment to rule of law. In education, innovation, and science and technology, the U.S continues to inspire India.

India and the U.S. have a fundamental stake in each other's success—for the sake of our values and our many shared interests. That is also the imperative of our partnership. And it will be of great value in advancing peace, security and stability in the Asia and Pacific regions; in the unfinished and urgent task of combating terrorism and extremism; and in securing our seas, cyber space and outer space, all of which now have a profound influence on our daily lives.

The complementary strengths of India and the U.S. can be used for inclusive and broad-based global development to transform lives across the world. Because our countries' values and interests are aligned, though our circumstances are different, we are in a unique position to become a bridge to a more integrated and cooperative world. With sensitivity to each other's point of view and the confidence of our friendship, we can contribute to more concerted international efforts to meet the pressing global challenges of our times.

This is a moment of flux in the global order. I am confident in the destiny of our two nations, because democracy is the greatest source of renewal and, with the right conditions, offers the best opportunity for the human spirit to flourish.

- Mr. Modi is prime minister of India.

 

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Indian Prime Minister Modi in the United States: What to Watch - Forbes

Indian Prime Minister Modi arrives in the United States this weekend, for a five-day visit split between New York and Washington, DC. He’ll have a full program in New York to start, with a speech at the UN General Assembly, numerous meetings with CEOs, speeches here at CFR and at the Global Citizen Festival in Central Park, and the headline-topping gathering of his closest 18,000 friends in the Indian American community at Madison Square Garden (to be simulcast in Times Square as well). That would be a heady program on its own.

But he’ll have an equally full program in Washington, which he will reach late Monday afternoon. President Obama will host him for a small, exclusive working dinner (over which the Indian press has begun to perseverate, since Mr. Modi will be on a lemon water and honey fast for Navratri). He will have discussions with the president, and other senior members of the administration will call on him. Vice President Biden will host a formal lunch at the State Department; he will meet with members of Congress; and he will address the U.S.-India Business Council before flying home Tuesday evening.

It’s a packed schedule. Some have already criticized the visit as too much, and likely to deliver too little. Others are asking what the big “deliverables” might be. It’s a good question to ask, since U.S.-India relations have been rocky during 2014, and economic ties have been troubled for several years.

I argue in Mint today that the place to look for deliverables will be Wall Street, not 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Two equally important factors make the private sector particularly important for bilateral ties right now.

The first is India’s urgent need to recapture economic growth, the central plank of Modi’s campaign earlier this year. Because of that domestic urgency, Modi has focused his international diplomacy on seeking big-dollar deals to help build India’s much needed infrastructure—a $1 trillion over ten years need—as well as a new initiative to jump-start India’s manufacturing sector in order to create jobs. His visit to Japan resulted in a $35 billion over five years development assistance headline. Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to India produced a $20 billion investment announcement, focused on infrastructure and industrial parks. Given that Modi chose to roll out, with great fanfare, his new “Make in India” initiative to attract foreign investment in manufacturing the day he left for New York, we can bet his single most important priority from his U.S. visit will be wooing foreign investment.


And this leads to the second reason why New York has an outsize role for India’s interests on this visit. Washington is ultimately not the core audience for the Modi message on investment and manufacturing in India. The United States government has tools to encourage, support, and promote exports; and tools to encourage investors to look overseas; but the U.S. government does not direct investment nor guide companies on their decisions. Companies need to reach their own conclusions in accordance with their business models. All those CEOs breakfasting with Modi in New York will be listening closely to his pitch about the new Indian business environment, and if things sound right, and the business model works, they’ll respond.

 

[MokshaVimukthi]

PM Modi leaving for the US

Arriving at Frankfurt,

India's new prime minister to make a splash in USA

NEW DELHI — Nine years ago, Narendra Modi was barred from entering the USA because of his role as a Hindu nationalist in India. Next week, he gets the red carpet treatment and a meeting with President Obama at the White House because of his new role as leader of the world's most populous democracy.

Modi, who became prime minister of India in May, will get a warm reception because he is also a business-friendly leader of one of the brightest economies in a world struggling to pull out of the worst downturn since the Great Depression.

Modi's U.S. tour will include a speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Saturday and an appearance at a Madison Square Garden reception for Indian Americans in New York on Sunday. More than 20,000 tickets have been sold for the event.

It's quite a change since Modi was denied a visa to the USA after Hindu militants massacred more than 1,000 Muslims in the state of Gujarat in 2002 while he was governor. Modi, a devout Hindu, was never charged in connection with the incident. Nevertheless, Modi has remained controversial because of his promotion of the Hindu faith, which the majority of Indians practice.

"The visit has symbolic value for Modi," said Gurpreet Mahajan, a political science professor at Jawahar Lal Nehru University in New Delhi. "It displays a reversal of America's policy toward him."

In a recent interview on CNN, Modi said U.S.-Indian relations have improved in recent decades and will continue along that path. "India and the United States of America are bound together by history and by culture. These ties will deepen further."

During his visit, Modi hopes to showcase his pro-business agenda and boost investor confidence in India.

Foreign investment dipped to an all-time low this year after a string of corruption scandals that plagued previous Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Congress Party.

The new prime minister, who presided over an economic renaissance in his home state, has made progress in a few short months to reversing that trend. British ratings firm Maplecroft recently ranked India No. 1 in economic opportunities for investors.

"The government's stability means that investors will benefit from clarity of policy and a regulatory environment that is largely conducive to business," Arvind Ramakrishnan, who oversees India at Maplecroft, told The Economic Times, a financial newspaper in India.

Modi and Obama's agenda for their meeting Monday includes discussions about economic relations, security agreements — including expanding India's role in the Middle East — and immigration, according to a White House statement.

"They will … focus on regional issues, including current developments in Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq, where India and the United States can work together with partners toward a positive outcome," the White House said.

The visit will be the latest in Modi's string of meetings with foreign leaders. In August, he visited Japan. Last week, he hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping in India as reports surfaced of tensions on the Himalayan border between the two countries. China and India fought a brief war over disputed territory in the Himalayas in 1962.

Modi's international engagement is aggressive compared with India's previous leaders, who spent more time managing bureaucracies and keeping a watchful eye on the country's traditional rival, Pakistan.

"There has been a slight shift in India's foreign policy," Mahajan said. "Modi has sent out a very positive message about focusing on the region and neighboring countries. He has put a viable relationship with China very high on his agenda."

Modi says India's relationship with the United States needs to hit the reset button. Trade between the two has grown from $5.6 billion in 1990 to more than $63 billion in 2013, making India the USA's 11th-largest trading partner, according to the U.S. Census.

That booming commerce was almost derailed last year by the arrest of Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade in New York on charges of lying to American officials about underpaying her babysitter. Modi's predecessor imposed sanctions on American diplomats in India in retaliation for the episode.

Modi wants to disregard those tensions, said GVL Narasimha Rao, a spokesman for Modi's Bhartiya Janata Party. "This really is an opportunity for the two nations to make amends for the past and to open a new chapter of mutual respect and cooperation," he said.

Although the visa denial still stings Modi supporters, the prime minister has other topics to discuss with Obama.

"The U.S. reaction was not just harsh, but also possibly irresponsible," Rao said. "But Prime Minister Modi has made it very clear that he is only going to focus on the big vision of bringing the Indian economy and Indian development to a new level."

 

[MokshaVimukthi]

Rare 20 year old pictures of Modi outside White House go viral | Business Standard News

Modi outside the White House in 1994

PM Narendra Modi’s visit to the US has been talked about at great length. Its interesting that till a few months back before he became the PM, Modi was not even sure of getting a visa to travel to the US. This followed a visa ban in 2005 imposed by the George W Bush government over the 2002 Gujarat riots. With a monumental shift of power in the Indian political scenario, the US now calls the visa ban a ‘thing of the past’.

But unknown to most people, Narendra Modi has infact visited the US 2 decades back. Back then, a much younger Narendra Modi had been invited by ACYPL (American Council of Young Political Leaders) along with some other political leaders and took a picture in front of the White House, completely oblivious to the fact that twenty years hence, he would be invited back as the PM of the largest democracy in the world.

G Kishen Reddy, the BJP president of Telangana has posted couple of pictures of his visit with PM Narendra Modi to the White House 20 years ago on his facebook page.

Modi’s first speech as the PM of India in the US will be held at the iconic Madison Square Garden, the tickets for which have been entirely sold out just like the tickets to a Knicks match or a concert, such is the soaring popularity of the Indian PM. Out of the 18,500 tickets that have been given to the organizers it has already seen demand for over 40,000 tickets, according to media reports.

The PM will be brimming with confidence on his maiden visit to the US after coming to power in May this year and in light of recent events in India - the historic success of the Mars Orbiter Mission by ISRO and the launch of the ‘Make in India’ campaign.

 

[风之南国]

Modi is a great leader, will lead India to become a superpower.

 

[MokshaVimukthi]

From standing outside the White house to be invited inside for an exclusive dinner, now that is inspirational. Once could almost say its an american dream ?

Summer of 1993: Check out a young Narendra Modi hanging out in the US - Firstpost

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will arrive in New York on Friday night in his first visit to the US after he became Prime Minister. The visit is also significant, because in 2005 the US denied Modi a visa to the country, because of his perceived role in the 2002 Gujarat riots.

Many assume therefore that this will be his first visit to the country. However, it should be pointed out that this won't be his first visit to the country. In fact he's returning to the city after having spent some time there in 1990's as a pracharak.

Pictures of PM Modi's US visit in the 1990s are circulating all over the Internet and news channels, and a simple Google search will show that these images are the latest buzz. You can check out some photos here and a video here.

Photos of Narendra Modi riding a bike, enjoying a boat ride, a day on the beach and one of him with the Universal Studios sign in the background are doing the rounds. But perhaps one image that will probably get shared a lot is one of Modi with a group of friends outside the White House, given that on this visit Modi himself will be a guest himself there. The rare photos show a rare touristy side to the Prime Minister, who always portrays an image of more 'business' than 'pleasure'.

In most of the pictures, you can see the future-PM, who is now known for his natty and sharp dressing sense, roaming around the country in a plain kurta- pajama. Although he's clean-shaven with a lot more hair. An Indian Express quotes Dr Panna Barai, the wife of Dr Bharat Barai and the man who is organising the Madison Square Garden rally for PM Modi, recounting Modi's 1993 visit to their home. She told the paper that Modi he had come with "only two-three sets of cotton kurta-pyjamas and would request her to keep one change ready for the next day."

It's only in the picture outside the Universal Studio that we see him in a full-sleeved shirt and pants, which is a rare sighting indeed, given that the PM is now usually seen in bandh-gala suits or silk kurtas and Nehru jackets.

According to a Times of India report, New York was like a "second-home" for Narendra Modi "who stayed for weeks at a time in the US as a party apparatchik tasked with spreading the gospel of the sangh parivar in America." The report quotes Suresh Jani, an old Modi associate who knew him from when he was an RSS pracharak as saying, "In everything he (Modi) did here, he had India on his mind." The report adds that "Modi stayed with the Janis in their Jersey City home."

Modi's visit to the Statue of Liberty in New York, it appears had a strong impact on him and Jani told TOI that Modi asked "why something like that could not be done in India." No real coincidence then, that the PM has announced a plan to build a bigger statue of Sardar Patel near Vadodara. As a pracharak, Narendra Modi also visited Chicago, Boston, Texas and California.

It seems Modi also had a tough time in following his diet regime in US. The PM is vegetarian and also doesn't eat onions and garlic.

The report quotes Prakash Swamy, a journalist recalling how when he invited Modi and Govindacharya (the RSS leader who eventually sent Modi to join the BJP) for a meal, Modi drank more rasam since he felt that a "liquid diet" was better for him.

Interestingly this US visit of the PM is also coinciding with Navratra for which he will be fasting. According to this Indian Express report, while there are "elaborate menus for a private dinner at the White House and a reception by the Indian Ambassador to the US are ready," PM Modi is likely to give these a miss. Earlier reports said he would be sticking to a lemonade and tea diet.

Interestingly in 2005, Modi was he was supposed to attend a convention in New York at Madison Square Gardens, but the US government cancelled his visa in light of the Gujarat riots. For many of his NRI associates, this return is also being a seen a big victory.

Given that this visit is taking place after 14 years, it's not surprising that tickets for the event are all sold out.

According to a Zee News report, "The Indian American Community Foundation (IACF), which is hosting the programme, said 18,000 free tickets have been distributed to various community organizations across America. The rest is for donors and invitees. The seating capacity of the venue is 20,000." For those who've been unable to buy tickets, they'll have the option of going to Times Square where the Indian PM's address would be broadcast live on a large screen.

 

[MokshaVimukthi]

More pictures from his 1993 visit to the US,

 

[MokshaVimukthi]

http://online.wsj.com/articles/modi-is-coming-to-white-house-for-dinnerbut-no-food-please-1411681946

Indian Prime Minister's Visit to U.S. Coincides With Strict Religious Fast, Posing Etiquette Challenge

During his visit to the U.S., Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has plans for a private dinner with President Barack Obama and lunch with Vice President Joe Biden. There's one complication. He won't be eating.

Mr. Modi arrives Friday in the middle of a strict nine-day religious fast, raising a delicate question for the White House: How do you host a dinner for a foreign leader who is forgoing food?

Such visits are meticulously choreographed, with months of planning and entire dossiers devoted to guests' dietary restrictions and religious beliefs. An extended fast is an unusual challenge, said Walter Scheib, a former longtime White House executive chef, who said he couldn't recall a similar situation.

Every leader "has different concerns, from the prosaic, such as I don't eat garlic, to this one—I don't eat," Mr. Scheib said. While he noted that the White House is adroit when it comes to etiquette, the arrangement at dinner has the potential to be slightly awkward. "It's very bad form to sit in front of fasting guests and eat heartily," he said. "It's just not polite."

Administration officials have been tight-lipped about what, if anything, the president and vice president will eat during meals with Mr. Modi. During the nine days of Navratri, a Hindu festival, the menu for the prime minister consists only of water and perhaps a bit of lime water.

"No food, no juices, no substitutes," said Nalin Kohli, a spokesman for Mr. Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party.

The prime minister has been observing the fast for 40 years and it doesn't affect his energy levels or his work, Mr. Kohli said. This five-day trip could test that proposition. Mr. Modi has an ambitious schedule encompassing nearly three dozen engagements in Washington, D.C., and New York, including addressing the United Nations General Assembly on Saturday.

According to the Indian Foreign Ministry, the prime minister will meet with a who's who of political and business leaders, including former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ; Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, all Democrats; South Carolina Republican Gov. Nikki Haley, who is Indian-American; and a long list of prominent CEOs.

In Washington, Mr. Modi is expected to spend time on Capitol Hill, as well. Michael Steel, spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) said his office would offer the prime minister beverages, and if he declines because he is fasting, that won't be a problem.

Mr. Modi's hosts appear to be well versed on his food preferences, or in this case, his preference to abstain.

"Let me assure you that those dietary preferences have been indicated to the host, and they have taken note of it and have prepared everything accordingly," said Syed Akbaruddin, a spokesman for the Indian Foreign Ministry.

In 2012, Mr. Modi wrote about Navratri and described the fast as "a source of strength, power and inspiration." He added that it's "never to seek anything but an act of self-purification."

The meeting of Messrs. Obama and Modi is a consequential one, viewed by both countries as an opportunity to reboot relations and strengthen economic and defense ties. Caitlin Hayden, spokeswoman for the president's National Security Council, said the White House is aware of the prime minister's plans to fast during his time at the executive mansion.

"The president looks forward to a successful bilateral visit with the prime minister, and we do not anticipate this being an issue in any way," she said.

Pamela Eyring, president and owner of the Protocol School of Washington, said Mr. Modi's hosts should perhaps limit their own consumption. Many officials bond over breaking bread together, but in this case, Mr. Obama will need to make adjustments.

"Food is the safest small talk topic of all time," Ms. Eyring said. "During fasting, it might not be a topic you want to stay on very long."

 

[MokshaVimukthi]

India’s Modi begins rock star-like U.S. tour - The Washington Post

Modi, the leader of India’s Bharatiya Janata Party, will speak to a capacity crowd at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, a show replete with laser lights, holographic images and Miss America Nina Davuluri as co-host. The event will be broadcast in Times Square and 100 other venues around the country. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has added extra trains to accommodate the expected crowds. A red carpet will be unfurled.

The excitement over Modi’s first visit to the United States is a measure of his popularity at home and the high expectations surrounding his five-day trip, where he’ll speak at the United Nations, meet business leaders and travel to Washington Monday and Tuesday for a summit with President Obama.

Officials on both sides have downplayed the possibility of any headline-grabbing agreements between the two nations in the days leading up to the visit, which comes at a time when the U.S. is in the midst of foreign policy crises in the Middle East and elsewhere. Rather, the trip is an opportunity for Modi to meet one-on-one for the first time with Obama, Congressional leaders and executives in his new role. And it is an opportunity to jump-start friendlier relations between the two large democracies, which have been tepid in recent years.

In his four-plus months in office, Modi, 64, has worked to consolidate his power base, reached out to Asian neighbors and tried to tackle some of India’s most pernicious social ills, including substandard sanitation and violence against women.

But it is his vision of a new India — modern, efficient and free of the corruption that dogged previous administrations — that has attracted so many supporters in the United States. So many wanted to hear him speak at the Garden that 10,000 signed up for a lottery for the few seats remaining after most of the 18,600 free tickets were distributed to Indian American community groups.

“Whether you like him or not, he is 180 degrees different from the previous administration,”said Anand Shah, a spokesman for the Indian American Community Foundation, one of the organizers of Sunday’s event. “There’s an opportunity for the rest of the world to engage in India in ways they haven’t in the past, and there’s an opportunity for the country to present a vision people can believe in.”

Yet despite his popularity both at home and abroad, the back story over Modi’s controversial past lingers.

When Modi arrived at John F. Kennedy Airport on Friday, it was his first step on American soil since the United States denied him a visa in 2005 on the grounds he violated religious freedoms while he was chief minister of the state of Gujarat and failed to do enough to stop Hindu-Muslim riots. He was only formally welcomed back to the United States by Obama after his party’s victory in May’s elections.

Modi has said he harbors no ill will toward the United States, but many in India have not forgotten the controversy, including those who think Modi did nothing wrong. This week, Modi was issued a formal summons to appear before a New York court as part of a lawsuit by an American civil liberties group representing two of the victims, and human rights protests are expected.

“You see, all this excitement is due to the fact that Mr. Modi was denied a legitimate right to have visited America from 2005 onwards,” said Vijay Jolly, the convener of overseas affairs for Modi’s party. “His style of governance — which found favor among the Indian electorate three times in Gujarat — was never accepted globally by the American government. The American system only accepted him after Mr. Modi achieved a full-fledged majority for the BJP.”

Since then, however, the United States has sent a string of high-level emissaries to establish ties with the new leader, including Secretary of State John F. Kerry, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and Sen. John McCain (R.-Ariz.).

And the White House has taken care to extend extra courtesies during the visit, including a private dinner with Obama at the White House Monday night before Tuesday’s summit and a working lunch hosted by Kerry and Vice President Biden at the State Department Tuesday. These meals will be complicated slightly by the fact that Modi, a Hindu, is in the middle of his annual religious fast.

The two leaders share reserved personas and similar modest backgrounds — Modi was the son of a man who sold tea in a railway station. Yet their leadership styles diverge, experts say.

“Their differences are probably more acute,” said W.P.S. Sidhu, a senior fellow for foreign policy at Brookings Institution India Center in New Delhi. “On one hand here is a leader who is coming in with a huge mandate and absolute control over the lower house of Parliament. He’s very much a man of action. On the other hand you’ve got a president who is going into a lame duck session, who has had all kinds of tussles and battles in Congress. He’s not a procrastinator, but he ponders a lot.”

Yet Modi needs American support if he is going to move forward with his vision of transforming Indian infrastructure, building “smart” cities and transforming the Indian railway system. To that end, his meetings with big name corporate leaders — such as Google's Eric Schmidt and Goldman Sachs's Lloyd Blankfein — may be more important than those in Washington, observers say.

Modi must convince foreign investors that India, long a difficult place to do business, is on the path to change. Trade between the two countries was $97 billion last year, and overall direct foreign investment has slowed.

This comes after his administration made some early missteps, in American eyes, by presenting a clunky budget with no sweeping reforms and blocking a World Trade Organization agreement in August over fears it did not protect their food subsidies and stockpiles. Citing the W.T.O. issue and other concerns, the Alliance for Fair Trade With India, a prominent trade group, , said in a letter to Obama this week that the Modi government’s “troubling policies” send “perplexing and contradictory signals about India’s role in the global marketplace.”

To counter such concerns, before hoping on the plane this week, Modi launched a splashy “Make in India” campaign to promote foreign investment in the country and penned a prominent Wall Street Journal editorial Friday aimed at the business community, where he pledged to eliminate unnecessary regulations and bureaucracy.

Modi is a pragmatist, Sidhu said, and he realizes that in the end, “it’s the U.S.that has the ability to leverage the financial and economic strength that will really facilitate getting India where it needs to go.”

 

[MokshaVimukthi]

Modi ji arrives in the US,

In a rare departure from his usual Nehru jacket over a traditional kurta, the PM arrived in New York wearing a deep maroon bandh gala and a pair of black trousers

At the JFK Airport in New York City, PM Modi is received by Indian Ambassador to US S Jaishankar

PM Modi waves to hundreds of his supporters while on his way to his hotel. The supporters were repeatedly chanting his name: "Modi, Modi".

NEW YORK: In a rare gesture, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today came out of his huge convoy to greet a large number of Indians who had gathered outside his hotel in New York to welcome him on his arrival to the US.

As a large convoy of vehicles came to the hotel he would be staying in till September 29 before moving to Washington, PM Modi came out and greeted people who had gathered there in a special enclosure made by local administration.

PM Modi greeted everyone with a namaste and also waved at the people, while walking across them outside the barricade of the enclosure and then walked inside the hotel.

He was greeted with 'Har Har Modi' slogan, heard first during Lok Sabha poll campaign. The Indians were also carrying placards with messages such as 'We love Modi' 'America loves Modi' 'Indian American loves Modi'.

They were also shouting slogans in support of Prime Minister Modi and were also chanting 'Vande Mataram' and 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai', besides the most largely-shouted 'Har Har Modi' chants.

Traffic was blocked before his arrival while pedestrians were also asked to take alternate route to cross the hotel lane in the busy Madison avenue area of New York city.

 

[MokshaVimukthi]

Modi Arrives, to Conquer America with His Charms -The New Indian Express

NEW YORK: As Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached New York, the US administration made it clear that they were taking the visit very seriously not just to expand the “depth and breadth” of the relationship, but also to establish a rapport between the Indian leader and US President Barack Obama.

Dressed in a maroon suit Modi, who arrived here at around 12.30 pm local time on Friday, was received by Indian Ambassador to US, S Jaishankar, Permanent representative of India, Asoke Mukherjee and Consulate General of India D M Mulay. Elaborate security arrangements were in place for the PM even in a city which hosts scores of Heads of States for the annual UN jamboree.

There were multiple layers of security, including the US Secret Service, FBI and New York Police Department (NYPD). Overhead, police helicopters hovered, almost hanging in mid-air among the tall buildings. The entire street in front of New York Palace Hotel had been barricaded, with side-doors being used to let in guests only after they displayed their room keys.

A little far from the barricades, Indians had gathered with placards in support of Modi. Meanwhile, seeing the big crowd, other Indians, many of them tourists, who did not know about the visit, lingered on hoping to catch a glimpse.

Modi is staying at the Towers section of the New York Palace and in one of the most expensive suites in the hotel. He arrived accompanied by a scream of sirens, almost drowning the loud cheers and slogans from the supporters on the sidelines, before he was whisked into the hotel.

But, he emerged from the hotel, surrounded by his security detail, but on foot and walked a block along Madison Avenue, waving to the crowd. “I was hoping to see him. But, I didn’t expect him to get down,” said Mansi Gandhi, 27, who is based her after his marriage. “It was really something”.

Alka Shah, who was from UK and on a New York sightseeing tour couldn’t believe her luck. “It was wonderful. But I didn’t get to shake hands,(though)” she said.

A little while earlier, White House held a background briefing where they spelt out their expectations for Obama-Modi meeting over two days on September 29-30 in Washington.

“In terms of nature of (bilateral) relationship,” said a senior US administration official, the aim is to “actually establish a rapport” since it will be their first meeting.

In terms of concrete outcomes, he said, “perhaps the most important” will be that the two leaders will talk to each other about their visions and how it can be fulfilled. “The majority of deliverables will be within the spectrum” of Defence and security issues, clean energy and climate issues.

Stating that the US President and First Lady were “really excited” about hosting PM Modi, the official said that it was more crucial as it takes place at a very “historic and pivotal moment”, when there were multiple crises across the world from the IS resurgence to Afghanistan.

The officials made it clear that they understood that the PM was coming with a large mandate from the Indian people. “We will be discussing how the US can play a supportive role to meet the PM’s objectives,” he said.

 

[MokshaVimukthi]

Crowd welcomes Modi with cheers in New York

Crowd welcomes Modi with cheers in New York - The Washington Post

 

[Marxist]

In a first, Modi to meet Israel PM

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold an unprecedented bilateral meeting in New York with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday, official sources said.

No Indian leader has had an official meeting with an Israeli counterpart at any multilateral setting, let alone the United Nations General Assembly.

At present, while Israel is one of India’s most important suppliers of arms, and a trusted partner in areas like counterterrorism and cybersecurity, New Delhi has insisted on keeping relations below the public radar. India has also continued to publicly support Palestinian statehood.


Because of Israeli religious observances Netanyahu could not meet Modi on Saturday and it was initially believed the two would not be able to meet. As it is, Netanyahu will arrive as most of the world leaders will have left New York and Modi may be one of the few leaders he will meet.

Modi is known to be a long-standing admirer of Israel, not only because of its military capabilities but also because of Israeli expertise in dryland agriculture and water management.

In a first, Modi to meet Israel PM - Hindustan Times

 

[MokshaVimukthi]

Meetings with the Israeli happened FAST.

Interesting to note that the Israeli's too had their Eight day festival that more or less coincides with the 9 day festival of Navratri.

Good thing that the war of ISIS has taken away the world media attention from the palestine issues.

 

[MokshaVimukthi]

The Three Million Manav March: Why Indian-Americans are Giving Prime Minister Modi a Rock Star Welcome at Madison Square Garden | Vamsee Juluri


Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to visit Washington and New York, where, in addition to meeting President Obama, he will receive a "rock star welcome" from nearly 20,000 Indian American supporters at Madison Square Garden on Sunday. The community event will be watched live by many more viewers at Times Square, and in homes around the country and in India.

The excitement about the event is incredible, and rarely has a political figure visiting from India inspired such adulation from the diaspora. It has been reported that Mr. Modi's community event has outflanked even a major Bollywood show, something that might not have happened with anyone else. Even if the visit is slated to be all about business and trade, as state visits tend to be, there is no denying the profound symbolism that is also coming to the United States with Mr. Modi.

In my view, the community event to welcome the Prime Minister is going to be the 3.2 million strong Indian-American community's equivalent of some of the great historical marches to Washington that have taken place in American history. Even if not everyone is traveling to New York, and even if not everyone has changed their earlier perceptions of him yet, it is still, in spirit a 3 million manav (human) march.

The Indian-American community is, historically speaking, one of the youngest immigrant and minority communities in the United States. With the notable exception of the early 20th century Sikh migrants to Canada and California who have earned an honored place in Indian history for their contribution to the freedom movement, most of the Indian-American community has hardly been in this country for fifty years (the landmark immigration act that opened America's door if not to the tired and the hungry at least to the qualified and dedicated will turn 50 next year). The first generation of immigrants who came were doctors, scientists and engineers, and they were followed later by families and workers, and more recently, by the iconic computer professionals of Silicon Valley. They believed in the American Dream, and to a large extent, made it too, as one might say. But, and there is a but, despite their relative affluence as a community, Indians in America (and Indians in India too, for different reasons) lost nearly two generation's worth of time in terms of finding their own sense of place in the world.

There is a historical context for this. India won its freedom from England in 1947. The first generation of immigrants were children of a tenuous era, when poverty and uncertainty about one's own culture and identity remained widespread in India. India did not lose its culture or religion under colonialism, but kept it in a strange way, by compromising, going quiet about it. Hinduism became, with the exception of Mahatma Gandhi, perhaps, a private, ceremonial religion, very different from the vast, civilizational, almost trans-religious cultural and philosophical force it had been for millennia. Hindus, in India, and in America, did not know how to speak about their worldview, or who they were, and who they were becoming. Hindu parents continued the old colonial-era survival strategy of silence even when their children faced problems emanating from old colonial-era myths and stereotypes about Hinduism in the media and in school textbooks.

Colonialism was over, the US had civil rights, everything was fine, but only so much. Indians had legal validation and a fair amount of social tolerance in America. But they had no voice. They did what their parents and grandparents had done in colonial India even when the British were saying silly or false things about them; they ignored and went on with life. It was obviously not enough, and it was obviously not good for Indians, or for others Americans, who somehow never could find the genuine dialogue they might have wanted with their newest large immigrant group.

A new generation of Indian-Americans has come of age now, and they are, as a whole, thoroughly dedicated to the idea of completing the cultural decolonization that plagued their representation in the media and in the public sphere. They no longer accept the 19th century myths and stereotypes textbooks written by colonial scholars with no real knowledge of India or Hinduism. They are speaking, to themselves, and to the world, as Indians, Hindus, and Americans. To some extent, this generational assertion is also taking place now in India. For the last two decades, the first generation of middle class children born after India's economic liberalization has been growing up on MTV and the internet, but at the same time with a renewed interest in what it means to be Indian, and as the case may be, Hindu, as well. Their culture has been described by experts as one of "rebelling in," to a middle class dream from failing socialistic and flawed secular pasts. They are not conforming blindly though. Their religion, their sense of self and values is different. Everything is changing, and everything is coming back to a center, still, in a way.

Mr. Modi's arrival in New York comes at a moment when a sense of civilizational renewal is powerfully in the minds and hearts of Indians in India and the diaspora. It is especially keen among Hindus and Hindu Americans, not because they see themselves in a petty intercivilizational rivalry with others (that sort of thinking was never really compatible with the grand universalism of Hindu spirituality and India has historically respected diversity rather than suppressed it), but simply because they want their civilization, and just Civilization, perhaps, restored to what it was before colonial degradation, and what it might be still, in a more equal, reasonable and compassionate world.

For some observers, especially in the media, the thought of seeing Prime Minister Modi as a part of this historic moment remains difficult to accept. The narrative associating him with religious extremism and blaming him for the riots of 2002 though will prove an ever dwindling one in terms of credibility in time, not unlike how the media and nearly everyone believed once that there were WMDs in Iraq too. His actions and his words in the last few years have proved very different from what was widely believed in the press. Indian voters have clearly made up their mind about who he is, and so have his many admirers in America. The contradictions between the media narratives and who he seems to be to those culturally rooted in Indian civilizational nuances are obvious. The media calls him "steely," but to many Indians, he just seems "spiritual," in his austere lifestyle, his self-denial, and his ability to speak in a manner that is seamlessly connecting ethics, civics, and politics in a way few have done in public life since the Mahatma. Critics call him a big business Prime Minister, an Indian one-percenter, and yet, he has spoken about the reality of poverty and inequality in India more frankly than any self-glorified national leader merely stoking pride and middle class egos. The truth, whether it fits everyone or not, is that Mr. Modi represents civilizational hope of a kind India and Indian America has not seen until now.

As someone who observes the everyday flow of media and pop culture for a living, I am struck by how resonant the sense of civilizational renewal is right now among Indians. It is expressed in varying forms by different people, perhaps. For some, it may be about business, science, and technology. For others, it may be about power. But undeniably, there is a sense that a Hindu and Indian way of looking at the world is beginning to re-emerge, and in a contemporary rather than retrograde form, after a gap over at least five centuries. The world looked to India for its wealth, culture and knowledge from the earliest days of history, and in the aftermath of the violence and madness of colonialism, in the last five centuries, India forgot to how to see. That somehow, is changing now. One man in search of India landed in what is now America in 1492. Another man leading an India searching for its soul anew is landing once again, in this, the New India of the world, this land with a home and hope for all, and the best in all, this United States of America.

Something is getting remade in our world of many civilizations, and one Civilization, of humanity, still.