Community reception for 1,000 people being organized at Capitol Hill.
By Sujeet Rajan
NEW YORK: For Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the upcoming visit to the United States on June 7-8 – his fourth one in two years – is likely to be most memorable for his scheduled address to a Joint Session of Congress on June 8, which will mark his 180 degree metamorphosis from political pariah to political paragon. The visit has lost much of sheen otherwise as the US has clarified that it’s only a bilateral ‘working visit’, not an official State Visit.
So for Modi, there won’t be the same resultant global media attention that emanates from a State Visit, the highlight of which is a regal State Dinner.
For Modi, however, the address to Congress is the perfect gift to his finishing two years in office, later this week. Liberal detractors of the Indian prime minister may lament eroding civil liberties under the BJP governance, but not even his staunchest critic can deny that under Modi and BJP government, the glut of scams that deluged India under the UPA rule has been stemmed.
Astute observers of Modi knows that he’s a man who relishes the big stage, revels in eloquent speeches that mesmerize the audience. In his last three visits, he has enthralled audiences at the Madison Square Garden in New York, the United Nations, and the SAP Centre in Silicon Valley.
Now comes the biggest stage of them all for Modi – perhaps the last one for many years to come if a certain Mr. Donald Trump wins the White Hose and shows disdain for India, trade imbalance with the US, bares his protectionist claws: Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. In 2005, Congress revoked Modi’s visa, made him persona non grata, for his alleged role in the 2002 Gujarat riots. Many other countries followed the US in banning Modi, including the United Kingdom.
It’s unlikely that Modi will mention that previous slight to him. Or perhaps, he just might, couch it in words to reflect that in democracies, it’s the rule of the people that prevails, not political institutions. Praise the American legislators for their kind gesture.
Of course, Congress is not according Modi any special treatment. For the record, every Indian prime minister since 1984, who held a full term, has addressed a joint session of Congress. Modi will be the fifth one to do so after Rajiv Gandhi in 1985, Narasimha Rao in 1994, Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2000 and Manmohan Singh in 2005.
A State Visit would have placed Modi in the crème de la crème of world leaders whom Barack Obama has feted in his eight years of presidency. He has hosted a total of 10 State Visits for individual leaders till now: for Manmohan Singh, Felipe Calderon, Angela Merkel, Lee Myung Bak, David Cameron, Francois Hollande, Shinzo Abe, Justin Trudeau, and twice for Chinese leaders, Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping.
Last week, Obama hosted leaders from the Nordic countries for a State Dinner, where First Lady Michelle Obama again wore a Naeem Khan gown. She had chosen a Naeem Khan gown for the dinner for Singh. That dinner for Singh has remained the most expensive for the Obama administration so far, with the bill coming at over half a million dollars.
But Modi’s ‘working visit’ to cement bilateral ties, “consolidation and celebration” of relations has strong significance for both countries: India will try hard to drive home the fact that it’s not the demon that Trump has been trying to portray to America in his speeches; in fact, India has created hundreds of thousands of jobs for the American people, in the US, and elsewhere.
For Obama, the meeting with Modi would give him another chance to portray his legacy of forging strong bonds with allies and world leaders, creating business opportunities for American companies. A legacy which will be carried forward in the same spirit by Hillary Clinton, Obama will no doubt assure Modi.
Unlike of course, Trump, who has spewed venom against some traditional allies like India and the UK, made a mess of relations even before he has got the GOP nomination, forget the White House. Obama will try to point out that the only wall Trump is bound to build during his time in office, if he were to win in November, would be between the US and its allies. The wall on the border with Mexico will take decades to build, if at all.
In the two days Modi will be in Washington, he will also headline a USIBC meet, and according to a source who spoke on condition of anonymity, a grand community dinner is being organized, at a location on Capitol Hill, which will be finalized in the next few days.
But for now, as the countdown starts for Modi’s visit, there is intense speculation on his address to Congress. With live coverage from C-Span and most major networks assured, Modi will have his grandest stage, and biggest audience till now, in America. Even Trump might watch Modi speak.
(Sujeet Rajan is Editor-in-Chief, The American Bazaar. Follow him @SujeetRajan1)