PM Narendra Modi's visit rebooted India-US ties: Experts

Two days after prime minister Narendra Modi returned from his successful trip to the United States, foreign policy experts express a deep sense of satisfaction that the India-United States relations which have been dormant in the last few years have been revived.

Strategy expert Uday Bhaskar uses the computer analogy: "The relations between the two countries were hung. Prime minister Modi's visit has rebooted the ties."

Both former Indian ambassador to the US, Lalit Man Singh, and former India's ambassador to Conference on Disarmament in Geneva Arundhati Ghose, agree. Singh says that the India-US relations dipped after Budget 2012 presented by then finance minister Pranab Mukherjee. The American business was unhappy. "Modi has succeeded in enthusing the American business and the government to look at India as an investment destination and the lure of the big Indian market."

Ghose and Singh are also of the view that while Manmohan Singh sought a special relationship with the US because he felt, like the Chinese leadership did in the late 1970s and through 1980s, that India needs American technology and investment. "The Congress Party fought shy of closer ties with the US," said Ghose. She feels that Modi is pursuing the same realistic policy with the US, but he is on a stronger ground because he is supported by his party.

She points out that Modi has put aside his personal prejudices – with regard to the denial of visa – and reworked the relationship with the Americans keeping in mind India's national interests. She describes Obama as an India-sceptic, but who has put aside his own reservations and he has put in his energy into reviving the relationship. "Modi and Obama are different but they have come together because each one is pursuing the national interests of his own country. Obama is a leftist in his politics in the American context, and Modi comes from the right. But they sank their differences over political orientations," she says.

Singh and Bhaskar concede that there was as yet no visible political chemistry between Modi and Obama. Singh says that though the two come from humble origins – Obama's grandfather was a cook in the British army and Modi a tea-vendor – they are different in terms of their political careers and how they made it to the top. Obama followed the high academics route and that of electoral politics. Modi is a grassroots politician who had served as a state chief minister before he became prime minister.

Singh observes that Modi has displayed the American style of speaking his mind and the Americans respect candour. He said the prime minister has boldly declared the need to fight the Islamic State (IS), which no Indian leader ever did before. Similarly, the reference to disputes in South China Sea in the joint statement is a radical departure because this was never done in the India-US bilateral context. He says that Manmohan Singh and former defence minister AK Antony had spoken about it in international fora.

Ajai Sahni is sceptical of the Americans on terrorism and he says that all the terror groups mentioned in the joint statement – Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed, D Company – have been on the American list of terror groups but Washington had refused to force Pakistan to act against them despite the fact that American citizens were killed in the Mumbai terror attack on November 26, 2008. Singh, however, thinks that the India-US declaration on cooperation in counter-terrorism including sharing of information is a major step forward.

Singh is of the view that there have been four major visits which mark the high tide of India-US relations. He says it began with president Bill Clinton's visit to India in 1999, prime minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Washington in 2005, president Barack and Michelle Obama's visit to India in 2010, and the visit of prime minister Modi to the US in 2014. "Modi's trip is not spectacular in terms of Manmohan Singh's trip in 2005 when the India-US civil nuclear deal was clinched, but there are substantive gains this time round," he points out.

Ghose feels that Modi has made it clear to Obama and his other interlocutors that he commands the adiration of the three million Indian diaspora and this constituency would be vital in a Congressional election year.