Blue Room ready for the meeting of Barack Obama and Narendra Modi
Once shunned by the US, India's PM Narendra Modi received a rock star welcome in New York's Madison Square Garden. Analyst Michael Kugelman talks to DW about how the premier is seeking to reshape India's image abroad. The Indian PM Narendra Modi appeared before an enthusiastic crowd of more than 18,500 people from the US and Canada - mostly of Indian origin - in Madison Square Garden, New York's famed sport arena. Modi came into the auditorium under a spotlight, leading many to compare the event to a political rally, with the audience wearing T-shirts bearing his picture and periodically chanting "Modi! Modi!"
Ahead of his first White House summit on September 29, Modi - speaking in Hindi from a rotating stage - vowed that he would build a strong and confident India, and fight corruption. He also touted India's promise as a tech giant, joking that it was no longer known as a nation of "snake charmers." A day before, in his debut at the United Nations, the Hindu nationalist had presented a worldview shaped by ancient tradition, promoting multilateralism as well as yoga.
Modi is currently on a five-day visit to the United States aimed at improving bilateral ties which have seen some irritants over the past years, including the revocation of Modi's visa after the 2002 Gujarat riots where some 1000 people - many of them Muslims - were killed, and, more recently, the spat over the arrest of an Indian diplomat in the US and India's refusal to sign a global trade deal.Michael Kugelman, South Asia analyst the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars, says in a DW interview that the PM is using the US visit to send out the message that India is strong, ready to engage with the US, and that he has clearly moved on from the visa ban that aggrieved him for so many years. But despite the pageantry, there are many tricky issues which will have to be discussed and won't magically go away, he adds.
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