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A Reality Check on Modi's US Visit

WILSON MATTU

 

 

 

After I posted a few “reality” pictures of Modi’s US visit on my Facebook page, my message box has been bursting at the seams with a few supportive, but mainly angry, and a couple of them even expletive responses.

Eleanor Roosevelt, a former US First Lady and wife of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, had once said, “Nothing that happens in politics is a surprise. Everything is pre-planned and calculated”.

With that as a backdrop, I would like all of my readers to know that I have been in the US for the last three decades and have been very politically active, informed and have witnessed most newsworthy events. My posts have been mainly to inform (and disillusion) the starry goggle-eyed, MODIfied individuals of the facts.

What you learned, saw and read in India, all that the mercenary and cheer-leading Indian media fed you, has been far from the truth.

Here are some revealing facts you haven not been told:

1   In a rare denial of protocol, neither President Obama nor Vice-President Biden or any US official of high cadre, was present to receive Modi on his arrival.

2   The much hyped about Madison Square Garden event was organized and financed by the Indian Embassy with Indian tax money, with a bit collected by selling high priced tickets to some gullible and favor-seeking Indians.

3   Obama made Modi wait for three days before granting him an audience.

4   First Lady Michelle Obama opted out of the White House “dinner”.

5   Unlike when the then PM Manmohan Singh visited, there was no photo-op with Modi on the front steps of the White House – a standard protocol awarded to all visiting foreign dignitaries.

6   Modi was housed at a US guest house across the street from the White House. He was not offered the Lincoln Room in the White House which is reserved and rewarded to only highly respected foreign dignitaries.

Modi could have stayed in one of the Tata hotels, but the US authorities wanted to restrict his movements and visitors.

(This is not without precedent. Iran’s ex-President Ahmadinejad was only allowed to go from his hotel to the UN Assembly hall and back. Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi had to sleep in a tent in New York’s Central Park as American hotels refused to rent him a room).

7   While Indian TV channels were flooded with news and videos of the so-called “Rock Star” reception of Modi, they forgot to tell you that all the “guests” had bought high priced tickets in hope of gaining expedited business licenses in India.

8  The only reason the American media spared a 15 second segment for Modi’s visit was because it was headlined by his dubious past about the 2002 carnage or the delivery of court summons to him.

9  CNN ran a pre-recorded (and edited) interview of Modi by an Indian-American reporter Fareed Zakaria. ABC, NBC, FOX, etc., none of the other TV channels consider his visit worthy of special airtime.

10  The New York Times, New York Post, Daily News, Newsday, etc. had minor stories on the visit deep inside their publications … on their 6th, 8th or 10th pages.


[Courtesy: India Opines. Edited for sikhchic.com]
October 7, 2014
 

Conversation about this article

1: Kaala Singh (Punjab), October 07, 2014, 12:52 PM.

This is a real revelation as in India the visit is being hailed as a great success. All media outlets are full of stories of the "rockstar reception" and what not. This visit is being called a "victory" as Modi was earlier banned from entering the US. There is also a lot of coverage about the meeting with US business leaders and the flood of investments they think are about to come their way.

2: Raj (Canada), October 07, 2014, 11:09 PM.

Also, he wasn't given a grand dinner offered to visiting dignitaries such as heads of state. The Indian media doesn't have an iota of credibility anyway.

3: Baldev Singh (Bradford, United Kingdom), October 09, 2014, 6:13 AM.

All the political world knows well that the 'world's largest democracy' (whatever that means) has a crypto 'Nazi' as a so-called leader! So this treatment highlighted in this honest and revealing article goes along with how decent people see the average Indian!

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