There's something about Modi: US thaws, might give him visa

There’s something about Modi. Despite his unabated penchant for name-calling political adversaries and now, their wives, Modi, hitherto an outcast in international politics, seems to be having his image resurrected around the world. The United Kingdom recently lightened its stand and ended a 10-year diplomatic boycott of the politician following the Gujarat riots and showed interest in developing “co-operation between the UK and Gujarat across a very broad range of fields, including education, science and innovation, energy and climate change, and trade and investment”. Now, the US, seems to have put the Gujarat riots in the past and has declared it has no problem giving Modi a US Visa. [caption id=“attachment_507940” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Narendra Modi. Reuters.[/caption] Interestingly, the US, which like the rest of the international political community had held Modi responsible for not being able to stop the anti-Muslim carnage in Gujarat in 2002, had started thawing early last year. An Economic Times article then quoted US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Robert Blake as saying that America found Gujarat’s business climate conducive to American investment. However, he maintained that Modi would not be issued a US Visa anytime soon. Modi was in fact, denied a US Visa in 2005, three years after the Gujarat Riots. However even that stand has seemingly changed. In an interview to Times Now, Blake today said that Modi could  apply for a US Visa and the normal procedure would take its course, possibly hinting at an end to its diplomatic war against Modi. Blake repeated that Gujarat was an important market for American companies and the country’s relations with the state were flourishing. Asked if they would reach out to Narendra Modi, Blake said that he didn’t want to speculate on the local politics of India and would work with whoever they have to in Gujarat. Very recently, deputy secretary of state, William Burns had commented that US would handle the visa application of the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as per the country’s immigration laws, making no mention of the political blockade that had been put in place against him in the past. With the run up to the Gujarat Elections hotting up, this US approval might just turn out to be the cherry on the poll cake. And the UPA will have to come up with a counter strategy soon!