T.P. Sreenivasan

The Indian Diaspora’s support for India is not automatic. They can be the severest critics of India on occasion, but they rarely hold back their support and solidarity when India does something right. So, the unprecedented rock-star reception accorded to Narendra Modi at Madison Square Garden (MSG) reflects the Indian American community’s genuine admiration and the expectation that he will transform India.

India never had it so good. Even in the old days of the cold war, nonalignment did not give India the kind of space that it has in the world today. The mightiest nations of the world are lined up to seek strategic partnership with India. Offers range from hard cash to technology, from trade in consumer goods to supply and co-production of sophisticated weapons. Old and seemingly intractable problems have given way to identification of mutuality, political, economic and cultural. Tantalizing offers are being made of membership of groupings, which appeared out of bounds for India till very recently.

US president Barack Obama and prime minister-designate Narendra Modi have several things in common despite the fundamental differences between the two men in their background, upbringing, and political beliefs. They each rose to power in revolutionary ways and it was the desire for major change that prompted the massive mandate they received. Obama is motivated by his desire to retain American primacy on the globe, while Modi is committed to bring India to the forefront of the world. Obama may not have anticipated the arrival of the Modi phenomenon and Modi may have a grievance that he has been denied a visa to enter the United States since 2005. But, given the interests and aspirations of the two countries, they cannot remain apart for long. Obama’s recent invitation to Modi is nothing but sincere and it may be accepted sooner than later. India needs the US as much as the US needs India. It is time for the India-US roller coaster to rise again.