Prime Minister Narendra Modi is received by Railways Minister D V Sadananda Gowda at HAL airport in Bangalore yesterday. Modi will today visit the mission control centre at the Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (Istrac) of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to witness the insertion of the interplanetary spacecraft into the Martian orbit.
By Daniel Bases/ Reuters/New York
It is a rock ‘n’ roller’s dream to “sell out The Garden,” but for a foreign politician to pack New York City’s most famous sports and entertainment arena is another thing entirely.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on his first trip to New York as leader of the world’s most populous democracy, will draw perhaps the largest crowd ever by a foreign leader on US soil when he takes the stage on Sunday in Madison Square Garden before a crowd forecast to total more than 18,000 people.
Thousands more are expected to pack New York’s Times Square to watch his address in Hindi on big screens as well as smaller viewing parties around the country and on TV in India.
The Indian diaspora hopes this visit by a leader who was until recently barred from the US will signify India’s importance not only on these shores but in wider the world too.
The event is being emceed by prominent members of the Indian American community, Nina Davuluri, who has just relinquished her crown as Miss America 2014, and TV journalist Hari Sreenivasan.
“Indian citizens and diaspora over the world are hopeful that this (Modi) administration will cut bureaucracy and focus on people,” said Dr Dinesh Patel, chief of arthroscopic surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, who arrived in the US more than 50 years ago.
Patel, who says he was given an award for work in education by Modi, a fellow Gujarati, added: “People are passionate to see the new leader. Another Narendra is coming to this country to let the USA know what India is about.”
The first Narendra was Swami Vivekananda, a 19th-century philosopher and monk who propagated the Hindu faith in the US. Modi often cites a speech by Vivekananda, born Narendra Nath Datta, to the Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893, as a source of inspiration.
“Let us remember the words of Swami Vivekananda and dedicate ourselves to furthering the cause of unity, brotherhood and world peace,” Modi wrote on September 11 to his 6.5mn followers on Twitter.
India’s economy, the third largest in Asia, has struggled to recover from sub-par growth, shackled by layers of bureaucracy anathema to the diaspora. Modi’s general election triumph in May was driven in large part by his entrepreneurial mantra.
On the eve of his US visit, tensions remain between the Washington and New Delhi over trade and spying.
The 64-year-old former chief minister of Gujarat was denied a US visa in 2005 over sectarian rioting that killed more than 1,000 people, mainly Muslims, three years before. Modi, who denies wrongdoing, has been exonerated by a Supreme Court probe.
Washington was late to warm to Modi. Its ambassador to India only met him in February, when opinion polls already put his nationalists on course for a big election win.
India’s US diaspora is a highly educated population of nearly 3.2mn, making up about 1% of the US population, according to latest US Census Bureau data.
As a group, they are more likely to be hooked to the Internet than their fellow Americans, far more likely to have a college or professional degree and twice as well off with an average household income of more than $100,000.
“Indians are generally very ambitious and entrepreneurs,” said Mike Narula, the founder, president and chief executive officer of Long Island, New York-based Reliance Communications, a distributor of mobile telecom devices and accessories.
Narula, who came to the US 17 years ago, first working in the garment industry, now has his own company with more than, 200 employees. He’s part of the host committee for Modi’s visit to Washington, where the prime minister will meet President Barack Obama on Monday and Tuesday.
Breakfast meeting with top CEOs
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will have breakfast with heads of top global companies including Google and PepsiCo on his upcoming visit to the US, in a bid to fetch investments for Asia’s third-largest economy. Modi is scheduled to have breakfast in New York on Monday with CEOs including Google’s Eric Schmidt and PepsiCo’s Indra Nooyi, and meet six others including the heads of Boeing, IBM, General Electric and Goldman Sachs. Modi kicks off his maiden US visit in New York on Friday, addressing the UN General Assembly on Saturday before attending a rally of Indian-Americans. He is due to fly on to Washington late Monday to meet President Barack Obama.
PM hires top designer to
create outfits for US visit
AFP/New Delhi
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is pulling out all the fashion stops for his upcoming visit to the US, hiring a top Mumbai designer to create outfits that will sell his vision of a newly confident, aspirational India.
India’s politicians are often mocked by media for their crumpled traditional cotton shirt-and-pyjama attire, which serves as an austerity badge in a nation where simple living is prized as a political credo.
But fashion experts say Modi, 64, has taken Indian political dress to a new level with his fastidious style, favouring crisp, half-sleeved linen, khadi or silk kurtas and churidar pyjamas he pairs with tailored Nehru jackets.
A former tea boy who rose to the top, Modi has embraced a look of prosperity and power, in line with his message of economic reform, and is credited with demonstrating that Indian men don’t have to forego traditional wear to look well-dressed.
“He’s selling aspirational India,” said Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, author of one the few biographies on the secretive leader, adding that Modi’s affinity for traditional wear ties into his nationalist image.
Modi’s use of colour makes him a fashion standout - from canary yellow, to lime green to skyblue and an in-your-face saffron, one of his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s colours, aside from elegant cream.
The move to hire Troy Costa, who designs for Bollywood stars, has given rise to speculation Modi might adopt a more sober suit and tie for his US visit.
But Costa, who defines his label as “focusing on modern masculinity and flattering functionality,” is keeping the garment bag firmly in place over what he will design for Modi’s barrel-chested frame.
“I’d rather let my product speak than me personally,” the 39-year-old said.
In Costa, Modi has chosen a clone of himself - someone from a humble background who pulled himself up by the bootstraps.
“I have no vices - I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t love parties, I try to spend 14-to-15 hours a day working and I thank god I’m doing what I love,” Costa said.
But while he looks set to dress snappily during the visit, there will still be a clear nod to his strictly observant Hindu and teetotal vegetarian lifestyle.
The trip coincides with the Navratri festival during which Modi has always observed a nine-day fast. Despite the hectic schedule, he is expected to restrict himself to a liquid diet of lemonade and tea for much of the visit, eschewing the lavish meals that traditionally characterise such trips.
Commentators say Modi is acutely aware of the image he wants to portray - a self-made man who hasn’t forgotten his roots.
GQ India editor Che Kurrien said Modi, who won his sweeping mandate in May with backing from India’s young, upwardly mobile voters, had a “keen eye for what makes him look good.”
“It’s clear details matter to Mr Modi, from his designer eyewear, to his watch, to his waistcoat - every part of his image counts,” he said.
Once in a while Modi likes to mix Western attire with Indian - sporting a Texan cowboy hat for instance. But he’s best known for his signature half-sleeved kurta known as the Modi Kurta - men’s kurtas are normally long-sleeved.
The tailor who refined the design, Bipin Chauhan of clothing chain Jade Blue, has trademarked the style - with Modi’s permission.
His style sense has drawn potshots from opponents such as powerful Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav, an old-style politician who cares not a jot about his appearance.
During the election campaign, Yadav wondered aloud how much time Modi would have to run the country when he “changes 500 kurtas a day and wears a new kurta to every meeting.”
But most observers seem to be happy with a leader who looks good on the national and international stages.
“Seems like the era of unkempt, paan-chewing netas (leaders) with pot-bellies, crumpled dhotis and discoloured kurtas is a thing of the past,” commented news magazine India Today.
