Modi may meet Obama in Sept

FE Team | Published: June 06, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

Narendra Modi

NEW DELHI, June 5 (Reuters): Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Washington to meet President Barack Obama in September, two Indian newspapers reported Thursday, signaling a new start in ties with a leader once denied a visa by the United States.
Modi, who swept to power in a general election last month, has accepted an invitation from Obama for two-way talks in Washington, the Times of India and the Hindustan Times said.
No comment was immediately available from the Indian government press office or from the US embassy.
Both countries are keen to boost security and economic ties - the Obama administration has set a goal of quintupling annual trade to $500 billion.
Scheduling has still to be finalised, but the summit would represent an upgrade from earlier expectations that Modi, 63, would meet Obama on the sidelines of the annual United Nations general assembly in New York.
Modi, a former chief minister of Gujarat, had been refused a U.S. visa over sectarian strife in the western Indian state in 2002, in which more than 1,000 people, mainly Muslims, were killed. He has denied any wrongdoing and an Indian Supreme Court inquiry found no case to answer.
The US ambassador to India met Modi earlier this year, as opinion polls showed his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on course for an election victory. US officials had said a visa and an invitation to meet would probably be forthcoming if Modi won.
Modi wants to cautiously open up the Indian economy to foreign investment to boost growth and job creation.
His government may announce as soon as next month that it will allow foreign online retailers to sell their own products in India, creating a major business opportunity for players such as Amazon.
Meanwhile: Indian police said Thursday they had arrested 13 members of a radical Hindu group after a Muslim man was beaten to death in a city suburb during an outbreak of rioting.
IT manager Shaikh Mohasin Sadiq, 28, was on a side street in the western city of Pune on his way to have dinner when he was set upon by the men on Monday night, Deputy Commissioner of Police Manoj Patil told AFP.
"He was beaten with rods and wooden sticks," he said.
Patil said the accused were members of the Hindu Rashtra Sena, a group he described as "radical in their thinking", and face charges of murder, attempted murder and rioting. All are men aged between 19 and 24.
Clashes broke out in Pune at the weekend after "distorted" pictures appeared on Facebook of a 17th century Indian warrior king and Bal Thackeray, the divisive late leader of Shiv Sena, a hardline local Hindu nationalist party, Patil said.
Shiv Sena is an ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party which swept to victory in recent general elections under Narendra Modi, India's new prime minister.