NY Diary: PM, off-record; Visa victory

Muted at Times

While virtually no seat in Madison Square Gardens remained unoccupied, the video of the show beamed on giant screens at Times Square was a bit of a damp squib. There was no audio for one; also, the Square was packed with tourists and shoppers who had no interest in the Indian political show. Some Pakistanis living in New York, however, stopped to watch, and said they were impressed with the Indian Prime Minister.

Tulsi’s Gita

A copy of the Gita is the Prime Minister’s preferred gift to counterparts and esteemed interlocutors, but on Saturday, it was his turn to receive one. Tulsi Gabbard, Democratic Congresswoman from Hawaii and the only practising Hindu member of the United States Congress, presented Modi with the Gita, along with a garland made of Tulsi flowers and albums of Krishna meditation music.

Visa victory

A group of 30 Sikhs from the USA and Canada who met Modi at his hotel on Saturday have been claiming credit for the announcements he made subsequently on easing travel and visa restrictions. These were precisely the issues they had discussed, they are saying. “I certainly think our demands on these issues had an immediate effect. But we also told him to do something about bringing the culprits of the 1984 riots to book and to stop persecution of Sikhs in the name of riots cases,” Mahinder Singh, one of those who met Modi, said.