Modi to get rockstar reception in New York; US lobby questions his reform credentials

September 26, 2014

New York, Sep 26: 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.

Modi us visit

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 United States will signify India's importance not only on these shores but in the wider 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 United States 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 United States. 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 6.5 million 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.

Diligent diaspora

India's US diaspora is a highly educated population of nearly 3.2 million, making up about 1 percent 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 United States 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 with President Barack Obama on Monday and Tuesday.

"We attempted to do business in India. I hope Modi will look into streamlining issues such as VAT, the role of FDI (foreign direct investment) and find a way for American businesses to not have to go through 19 red tape bureaucracies," he said.

While Indian Americans are well represented in America's professional class, they are less visible in the military. Some 0.1 percent serve in the armed forces compared to 0.4 percent of Americans as a whole.

"The diaspora does very well on entrepreneurship, but not as much on the physical sacrifices. It is not just enough to be a citizen and taxpayer," said Raj Bhandari, a 48 year old Mumbai-born banker from New Jersey. "As a larger community I would like it to be more engaged on the front lines."

US business questions Modi's reform credentials ahead of visit

The US business lobby on Thursday questioned the reformist credentials of Modi, on the eve of his visit to the United States in which he will encourage investment and declare India open for business.

The US Chamber of Commerce and 15 other US business associations representing sectors ranging from agriculture to movie making, pharmaceuticals and telecoms, called on President Barack Obama to press Modi to remove barriers to fair trade when the two leaders meet in Washington on Monday and Tuesday.

"Since taking office, Prime Minister Modi has declared India 'open for business' and promised to incentivize investment and 'give the world a favorable opportunity to trade with and produce in India,'" the Alliance for Fair Trade with India said in a letter to Obama.

"Thus far, however, the new Indian government has produced troubling policies of its own," the group said, adding: "These actions send perplexing and contradictory new signals about India's role in the global marketplace."

The letter highlighted India's blockage of a key World Trade Organization agreement reached in Bali last year, which overshadowed a July 30-August 1 visit to India by US Secretary of State John Kerry.

The business alliance also complained about India's raised tariffs and "burdensome" new testing requirements on imported information and communication technology products.

US officials say the United States will press Modi to end the WTO blockage during his visit, something that could dampen the mood of a trip aimed at revitalizing a strategic relationship Washington sees as a key counterbalance in Asia to an increasingly assertive China.

Also on Thursday, US Congressional leaders dealing with trade and finance wrote to the US International Trade Commission calling for a second investigation into India's "unfair" trade practices, detailing any changes under Modi. They called for the ITC to deliver a report to Congress on September 24, 2015, a statement said.

A report requested in August last year is due to be delivered to Congress on December 15 this year.

Stephen Ezell, senior trade policy analyst at the Washington based Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, told a teleconference that Modi had taken some positive steps, including an easing of some restrictions on investment in the defense, insurance and railway sectors.

"However ... we've also seen the continuation of existing — and even the promulgation of some new — trade-distorting policies that do give us some pause," he said.

Chris Moore, of the National Association of Manufacturers, said Modi and his administration were "saying positive things."

"But their actions tell a different story."

Patrick Kilbride, of the US Chamber of Commerce, welcomed the Indian government's plans to review the environment for intellectual property rights, but said it remained "very poor."

The chamber would take the pledges at face value, he said, but added: "Recent history has given us many reasons to be wary."

Modi is due to arrive in the United States on Friday for his first visit as prime minister and has meetings scheduled with 17 US corporate chiefs including those of Google, IBM, GE, Goldman Sachs and Boeing.

Analysts say maintaining a positive mood will be important during the visit.

There was no immediate comment from the Indian embassy in Washington on the letter from the US business lobby.

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March 16,2024

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Ottawa, Mar 16: An Indian-origin couple and their teenage daughter were killed in a "suspicious" fire which tore through their home last week in Canada's Ontario province, police said on Friday.

A fire engulfed a home at the Big Sky Way and Van Kirk Drive area of Brampton on March 7, a press release by the Peel Police said.

After the blaze was put out, investigators located what was believed to be human remains within the gutted house, but the number of people killed couldn't be ascertained at the time.

The charred remains were on Friday identified as those of three family members: 51-year-old Rajiv Warikoo; his wife, 47-year-old Shilpa Kotha; and their 16-year-old daughter, Mahek Warikoo.

Police said that they resided at the address before the fire.

Peel police Constable Taryn Young on Friday said the fire had been deemed suspicious, the CTV news channel reported.

"At this time, we are investigating this with our homicide bureau, and we are deeming this as suspicious as the Ontario Fire Marshal has deemed that this fire was not accidental," the report quoted Young as saying.

"There's not much left to it," Young said when asked about the possible cause of the fire.

"Looking into something like that as a fire marshal, I'm sure it's very tough when there is not much left to look at. But we are exhausting all avenues," she said.

The deceased family's neighbour, Kenneth Yousaf, said that the family had lived on the street for about 15 years, and he never noticed any problems with them.

Yousaf said he was alerted to the fire last week by a family member, who heard a big "bang." "When we came out, the house was on fire. So sad. Within a few hours, everything was down to the ground," the report quoted Yousaf as saying.

In a press release, police said they are continuing to investigate the deaths of the three family members and urged anyone with information to come forward.

"The circumstances surrounding the house fire remains the focus of an active investigation, and anyone with information or video footage (dashcam or otherwise) is urged to contact Homicide detectives," police said.

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March 28,2024

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Russia says it is "extremely hard to believe" that Daesh could have staged the recent hugely deadly attack on a Moscow concert hall that the country's intelligence and security officials have blamed on Ukraine and its Western backers.

Four gunmen burst into the Russian capital's Crocus City Hall on Friday and began shooting at the people, who were attending an event. The Takfiri terrorist group has allegedly claimed responsibility for the massacre that killed at least 143.

Speaking on Wednesday, however, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova cast that claim into serious doubt.

"In order to ward off suspicions from the collective West, they urgently needed to come up with something, so they resorted to ISIS (Daesh), pulled an ace out of their sleeve, and literally a few hours after the terrorist attack, the Anglo-Saxon media began disseminating precisely these versions," she said.

The chief of the Russian internal intelligence (FSB), Alexander Bortnikov has suggested that not only Ukraine, but also the United States and Britain might have been behind the shooting.

The Russian Federal Security Service has also said the gunmen planned to travel to Ukraine, where they were to be welcomed as "heroes." The FSB said Western intelligence services aided the attackers.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has also suggested that Ukraine stood to derive benefit from the attack and that Kiev might have played a role.

He has said that someone on the Ukrainian side had prepared a "window" for the gunmen to escape across the border before they were captured in western Russia on Friday night.

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News Network
March 18,2024

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Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed a landslide victory in the just-concluded presidential polls, securing him a fifth term in power. While Putin hailed the results as an indication of "trust" and "hope" in him, critics panned the polls for its preordained nature.

As early results poured in, Putin won 87.8% of the vote, the highest-ever result in Russia's post-Soviet history, Reuters quoted Public Opinion Foundation (FOM) exit polls. The Russian Public Opinion Research Centre (VCIOM) put Putin on 87%. 

If he completes the term, the 71-year-old President will also script history as Russia's longest-serving leader for more than 200 years, overtaking Josef Stalin. 

While Communist candidate Nikolai Kharitonov finished second with just under 4%, newcomer Vladislav Davankov third, and ultra-nationalist Leonid Slutsky fourth, partial results suggested.

In his victory speech, Putin said he would prioritise resolving tasks associated with Russia's "special military operation" in Ukraine and would strengthen the Russian military. 

"We have many tasks ahead. But when we are consolidated - no matter who wants to intimidate us, suppress us - nobody has ever succeeded in history, they have not succeeded now, and they will not succeed ever in the future," said Putin. He was welcomed by his supporters to the stage with "Putin Putin" chants. He also hailed the results as an indication of "trust" and "hope" in him.

Later, while interacting with reporters, Putin also warned the West that a direct conflict between Russia and the U.S.-led NATO military alliance would mean the planet was one step away from World War Three but said hardly anyone wanted such a scenario. "It is clear to everyone, that this will be one step away from a full-scale World War Three. I think hardly anyone is interested in this," Putin told reporters after winning the biggest-ever landslide in post-Soviet Russian history.

Meanwhile, the Western world condemned the elections, stating the polls were neither free nor fair. While Germany called it a "pseudo-election" under an authoritarian ruler reliant on censorship, repression and violence, UK Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron condemned "the illegal holding of elections on Ukrainian territory".

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said, "The Russian dictator is simulating another election".

Earlier during the elections, heeding an opposition call to protest, hundreds of  Russians crowded outside polling stations at noon Sunday, on the last day of the elections. The associates of Alexei Navalny, the critic of Putin who died earlier this month in an Arctic prison, had urged people who were unhappy with Putin or the war in Ukraine to go to the polls at noon on Sunday. Many turned up and lines outside a number of polling stations both inside Russia and at its embassies around the world appeared to swell at that time.

Among those heeding the call was Yulia Navalnaya, Navalny's widow, who joined a long line in Berlin. She later told reporters that she cast her vote and wrote her late husband's name on the ballot.  Asked whether she had a message for Putin, Navalnaya replied: "Please stop asking for messages from me or from somebody for Mr. Putin. There could be no negotiations and nothing with Mr. Putin, because he's a killer, he's a gangster."

One woman in Moscow, who said her name was Yulia, told the AP that she was voting for the first time. "Even if my vote doesn't change anything, my conscience will be clear ... for the future that I want to see for our country," she said. Like others, she didn't give her full name because of security concerns.

Another Moscow voter, who also identified himself only by his first name, Vadim, said he hoped for change, but added that "unfortunately, it's unlikely".

More acts of rebellion were reported on Saturday too. Cases were filed against at least 15 people for pouring dye in ballot boxes, started fires or lobbing Molotov cocktails at polling stations. Ella Pamfilova, the head of Russia’s CEC, said 29 polling stations across 20 regions in Russia were targeted, including eight arson attempts.

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