Scripting anew: Obama, Modi co-author vision article on India-US ties in US daily

Chalein Saath, Saath: forward we go together.” This emerging India-US bonding, with its promise of working together on a host of bilateral and global issues, will be reflected in a joint op-ed article co-authored by US President Barack Obama and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The article, which was approved only hours before the two leaders sat down for an informal dinner at the White House, will be published in a leading American daily, likely to be the Washington Post.

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Khem Cho: Modi, Obama have warm-up dinner, with world on the plate

Khem Cho, Mr Prime Minister! The Gujarati greeting by US President Barack Obama brought a little smile to India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he stepped inside the White House for his first meeting with the world’s most powerful man. For the next 90 minutes, the two leaders sat down for a free-flowing conversation that encompassed big issues as well as small talk. It was literally a warm-up dinner, albeit with a difference -– the fasting Indian prime minister sipped warm water while his host, accompanied by his senior cabinet colleagues, had their dinner.

Sparks did not exactly fly or the two leaders went down for a private walk on the White House lawns. Clearly, the bells and whistles were missing – the kind the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh got when Mr Obama hosted the first state dinner of his presidency. However, in the end, the first Obama-Modi meeting proved to be a fairly meaty mouthful before the full-course talks on September 30, which are expected to add a fresh sparkle to the much-touted defining partnership of the 21st century. The tone and substance of the initial interaction could be best summed up in the words –- “Chalein Saath Saath, forward together we go” –- the vision statement for the US-India Strategic Partnership that was issued ahead of the private dinner hosted by Mr Obama for his Indian guest.

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Modi, the rock star, casts spell in America with Great India Dream

Magic, mania and mystique. The Modi madness swamped New York’s famed Madison Square Garden on a bright Sunday afternoon when the leader of the world’s largest democracy unveiled his dream of remaking India and was lavished adulation that only rock stars can dream of.
Hundreds of Indian-Americans waving tricolours and sporting Modi t-shirts and tattoos thronged the Penn Plaza entrance to the iconic Madison Square Garden which is better known for hosting baseball legends, rock stars and singing sensations. Chants of MODI and WE LOVE MODI reverberated in the air.
Remaking India – this was the master theme of Modi who wove a melange of interlinked themes in his speech, which included national renewal, the role of the Indian-American community in enhancing the global profile of India, his pet projects like clean India mission, cleansing of Ganga and a compelling re-articulation of the ‘Make in India’ campaign he launched just a day before he started his American journey.

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Unleashing yoga power at UN, the Modi way

After launching the ‘Make in India’ mantra back home, Prime Minister Narendra Modi unleashed the country’s soft power at the UN as he exhorted the world community to observe an International Yoga Day, which he eloquently described as “India’s gift to the world.”
In his maiden speech at the UN General Assembly, which marked the 61-year-old leader’s metamorphosis into a world statesman, Mr Modi interspersed his robust pitch for reforms of the UN Security Council with a philosophical spin on organic connections between climate change and yoga, which he grounded in the spiritual concepts of harmony between man and nature. “By changing our lifestyle and creating consciousness, it can help us deal with climate change. Let us work towards adopting an International Yoga Day,” he said.

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Serious about talks with Pakistan, but sans terror shadow: Modi

Putting the ball in Islamabad’s court, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has underlined that that he wants to hold bilateral talks with Pakistan, only “without a shadow of terrorism,” and provided the latter creates the right atmosphere for it. In his maiden address to the 69th session of the ongoing UN General Assembly on a radiant sunny day in New York, , Mr Modi outlined his foreign policy on India’s neighbourhood, and signalled in a statesman-like manner that he wants to engage with Pakistan with all seriousness
The Indian leader’s comments came a day after Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif voiced frustration over stalled talks over Kashmir and more than a month after India cancelled foreign secretary-level talks with Pakistan by registering strong objections to the Pakistani envoy’s meeting with Kashmiri separatist leaders.

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