This is perhaps one of the most anticipated foreign visits by the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in recent times. Modiji will be visiting United States next week on US President Barack Obama’s invitation and speculation has been rife about the agenda, the fall out and the overall agenda of this visit. Be it the opposition or political experts many theories are doing the rounds of the potential outcome of this visit. However the official stance on it seems to be relatively lacklustre in comparison.
According to the Indian envoy in US, Arun K Singh, “The invitation and the visit is part of consolidating and celebrating the relationship.” The Prime Minister who is scheduled to spend 50 hours in the US Capital, will be reaching on June 6 at the Joint Airforce Base, Andrews. He is likely to meet President Barack Obama on June 7 and discuss a whole host of matters including meetings at the delegation level and one-on-one-meetings and an address to the press after that. The other highlights of the visit include addressing the joint session of the US Congress on June *, interaction with key corporate like Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and address the annual gala of US India Business Council (USIBC).
Meanwhile a Congressional commission will hold a hearing to examine the current state of human rights in India which coincides with this visit of the Mr Modi. The commission will examine issues including the perseverance of the caste system, human trafficking, religious intolerance, crackdown on free speech and the lack of support to international NGOs, including others human right concerns. This hearing has been under the scanner for a variety of reasons and the outcome will surely be a key monitorable for observers of this visit.
According to the Indian envoy in US, Modi’s visit will bring about “consolidation of what has been achieved so far and seeing what more can be done as we move into next year when there would be transition of administration in the US and to celebrate the achievements in the relationship.”
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