After taking New York by storm of a kind that no Indian leader has ever attempted, Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives in Washington later on Monday for the much-awaited powwow with President Barack Obama aimed at resetting the stalled US-India relations.
Obama kicks off his first face-to-face meeting with Modi by hosting a private dinner for him. With Modi fasting, subsisting as he has been on plain water for the past five days, the menu can be summarily dispensed with. But there is a plateful of outstanding issues for the two to chew over.
One of them is the ticklish issue of H-1B and l-1 work visas for Indian professionals, notably the “mouse-charmers” from the IT world as Modi calls them. Here, one may be tempted to ask: Will Obama reciprocate Modi’s unilateral announcement on Sunday of long-term Indian visas for Americans, albeit only for tourists, that will include the facility of visa on arrival.
Indian IT firms doing business in America have been under mounting pressure on the visa front as never before. Even if the Senate-passed Immigration Bill with punitive clauses on this score has remained stuck in the House of Representatives for more than a year, the Indian firms have been feeling the pinch for some years now with steep fee hikes selectively targeting their US operations.
President Obama has been mulling the option of certain executive actions to break the deadlock on the Immigration Bill. But there is no knowing if his action would include the massive expansion of H-1B visas proposed in the Senate Bill, but without the rigorous provisions aimed at the Indian software firms.
Obama has in recent years been faulted for letting US-India relations slip below the radar. Some pundits say that his decision to have back-to-back meetings with Modi (with the formal Oval Office talks set for Tuesday) indicate Obama’s keenness to reinvigorate a relationship that he described as one of the most defining of the 21st century.
The United States has its own long list of woes vis-Ã -vis India. For starters, it has been peeved that, despite its initiative to end India’s nuclear ‘pariah’ status, American companies have not been able to capitalise from the landmark civil nuclear deal because of issues with India’s stiff liability legislation. The Americans have been doggedly pursuing this issue and Obama is now expected to bring up this matter with Modi.
Obama may also seek to engage Modi on the US’s current preoccupation of battling the militant Islamic State in Iraq and Syria through a broader global coalition that is said to consist of about 40 countries.
Then there are a series of irritants on the trade front and US objections to India’s “protectionism”, allegedly favouring domestic companies. Washington has also been at daggers drawn over the Intellectual Property Rights issue.
The US Congress, taking up representations from Corporate America, have got the US International Trade Commission to institute a virtually roving inquiry into India’s economic policies, much to the annoyance of New Delhi.
Some analysts believe that Modi’s visit, which has been high on optics ever since he landed in New York on Friday, may face its first real test now in terms of “deliverables”.
The Obama administration, in an apparent move to manage expectations, has indicated that it being the first meeting between Obama and Modi, the visit will greatly help the two leader to establish the rapport for a good working relationship. One area in which a forward push is widely expected is defence and security cooperation.
The White House has said the talks will focus on economic growth and cooperation on security, clean energy, climate change and other issues.
“Modi is here to sell a new New India, with himself as the man who can be trusted to deliver on its promise. But it remains to be seen whether he is willing or able to bridge India’s wide differences with the United States on tax policy, climate change, outsourcing, intellectual property rights and other issues. Nor has India proved to be a trusted partner (India avoids the word “ally”) on American foreign policy priorities, including the conflict in Syria,” the influential New York Times noted on Monday.
Former US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns and chief negotiator of the civil nuclear deal under the Bush administration is among many top experts who believe that the United States has got to reboot the relationship with India.