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."