“Thank you, America,” he said, waving to the audience at Madison SquareModi left Washington at the end of his visit and returned home on a Special Air India plane after a brief transit halt in Frankfurt.
Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan and a few of his ministerial colleagues were present at the Palam Airport to receive Modi in a departure from normal practice where ministers no longer line up to see off or receive the Prime Minister during his foreign trips.
During the five-day hectic visit, Modi projected India as an attractive investment destination, tried to reset ties with America, addressed the UN General Assembly and enthralled the Indian diaspora.
At the end of his first visit to the US as Prime Minister, Modi “thanked” America for what he said was a highly “successful and satisfactory trip” to the country.
Modi and President Barack Obama held a summit meeting in the Oval Office of the White House, at the end of which the two leaders promised to take the India-US relationship to new heights.
But were there milestone achievements or major announcements? There were no investment packages of the kind Modi brought from Japan or the one Xi Jinping brought.
These five days : Day 1, September 26: A quiet evening at the hotel.
Day 2, September 27: After his maiden speech at UNGA, diplomats, UN staffers and three Prime Ministers queue up to greet him backstage. X-Men star Hugh Jackman introduces him at the Global Citizens festival. The prime minister speaks in English, connects with a largely American audience, all young.
Day 3, September 28: He gets a rockstar reception from the Indian American community at Madison Square Garden, with over 30 US lawmakers present.
Day 4, September 29: Seventeen of the world’s most powerful business leaders meet him in his suite — including Lloyd Blankfein, Jeff Imelt, Henry Kravis, Indra Nooyi.
He ends the day in DC, with a quiet dinner with President Barack Obama, and aides. They connect. Modi said later “we have similar interests” and “our wavelengths matched”.
Day 5, September 30: India-US formal bilateral meeting goes on for two hours, after which Obama accompanies Modi to the memorial of Martin Luther King.
That was noted. Experts found a renewed commitment by the two countries to the relationship. For Teresita Schaffer, the timing itself was a significant achievement.
Interestingly, the “high-profile” public reception that Narendra Modi received before a packed Madison Square Garden appeared prominently in American media, which so far had given scant coverage to the Prime Minister’s US visit.
The maiden US visit of Modi as Prime Minister was hardly taken note of by mainstream American media so far, till he addressed nearly 20,000 people of the Indian community at the event in Madison Square Garden in New York