Some American pundits may have been surprised by President Barack Obama’s India visit at a time when he would be heavily preoccupied with the annual State of the Union preparations and follow-up activity, but diplomatic sources view this as a measure of the importance that the US leader attaches to his country’s relationship with India.
It was always going to be “a judgment call”, and Obama evidently thought through it as he accepted Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s invitation to be the chief guest at this year’s Republic Day celebrations. Sources believe that the apparent American expectation is that the Indian economy, under the Modi stewardship, is going to be a happening place.
In contrast to the choc-a-block coverage in the Indian media on the run-up to the Obama visit, there has just about been a mention of it in sections of the American media, that too laced with some criticism of the President for undertaking the visit at this time.
“Think about the timing of this. The President is going to India three days after his State of the Union address. A period of time when he normally would be out trying to rally Congress and the public behind his agenda,” carped a media gun on CNN on Tuesday.
But diplomatic sources say the invitation and the acceptance go beyond the chemistry that Obama and Modi have come to share right from their first meeting in Washington last September.
And beyond the symbolism and optics of the first US president gracing India’s R-Day celebrations, the diplomatic establishments in both capitals are working overtime to make it a “substantial” visit that could unfold key advances in relationship in the sphere of defence, nuclear energy, trade and investment.
The White House is still to lay out the details of the visit. First lady Michelle Obama is expected to accompany the President, alongwith daughters, Malia and Sasha. Three prominent Democratic lawmakers, including Indian-American Congressman Ami Bera, are slated to join the President on this trip. The other two are Senator Mark Warner, the Democratic co-chair of the Senate India Caucus, and New York Congressmen Joe Crowley, a friend of India and former co-chair of the House Caucus on India.
“As the son of Indian immigrants, I am extremely honoured to be a part of this historic trip to India with the President,” Bera said in a statement that referred to Modi’s US trip last September as “a turning point in relations for our countries”.