Obama, Merkel and not football: Why Modi will watch World Cup final in Brazil

Narendra Modi would have never thought that he may get to sit at the high table of world diplomacy so soon after becoming the Indian Prime Minister. But this seems to be happening. He may well get a chance to meet United States President Barack Obama next month itself, well ahead of Modi’s bilateral visit to the US in September. [caption id=“attachment_1575391” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Narendra Modi. PTI[/caption] The opportunity is watching the football World Cup final in the Brazilian mega city Rio de Janeiro on 13 July for which he has been invited by Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff ahead of the 6th BRICS summit to be held on 15-17 July in another Brazilian city of Fortaleza, which is about 2200 kms away. While all other BRICS leaders, Presidents of China (Xi Jinping), Russia (Vladimir Putin) and South Africa (Jacob Zuma), have already given their consent to attend the world’s grandest sporting event, no formal decision has been conveyed to the hostess by Modi and no communication has been made by the Modi government to Brazil even as an advance team is leaving for Japan and Brazil later on Tuesday evening, the two countries which Modi will be visiting separately next month. Modi was also confronted with another possible red rag — the opposition crying foul over his ‘frequent foreign visits’. He has just come from his first foreign visit to Bhutan (15-16 June) and will have visited Japan (3-4 July) before embarking on his Brazil trip. But a key source told Firstpost on Tuesday evening that Modi is likely to accept Dilma’s invitation as he will get to meet the crème de la crème of the world leadership. He has been told by his officials that President Obama is all set to travel to Brazil for watching the final. Besides, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is also likely to visit Brazil for watching the match. Germany is Europe’s number one economy which interests Modi deeply. Modi has been told by his advisors that rarely does a new incumbent in the Indian PMO get an opportunity like he is getting to meet the who’s who of the world leadership informally. If Modi has held back the announcement of his approval of the Brazilian President’s invitation, it is largely because of the pressing domestic issues. His government is scheduled to present his maiden budget in Parliament next month. The budget has to be passed by both houses of Parliament by 30 July. Earlier the government was thinking of convening the budget session of Parliament in the middle of July. This would have clashed straight with the BRICS summit. But Modi could have explained his absence from India citing many precedence and also the fact that the calendar of multilateral events and summits cannot be changed at the behest of India. But this changed after Dilma Rousseff invited Modi for watching the World Cup final. She was one of the first world leaders to have telephoned him and congratulated him over his election victory. Now Modi and his advisors are toying with the idea of convening the budget session earlier than originally planned. The latest Parliament schedule being worked out is to begin the budget session on 7 July, present Rail Budget on 8 July, Economic Survey on 9 July and the general budget on 10 July. This would allow Modi to leave for Brazil on 11 July to be in Fortaleza in time for attending the final. *The writer is a Firstpost columnist and a strategic analyst who tweets @Kishkindha.