WASHINGTON: Narendra Modi led Bharatiya Janata Party's stunning election victory had put behind the issue of U.S. visa for him and it's unlikely to impact bilateral ties with the U.S., according to a noted Indian strategic expert.
After his election victory, the new Indian prime minister had made it clear that how India engages with U.S. bilaterally would not be impacted by how an individual was treated, Commodore (retd.) C Uday Bhaskar, Distinguished Fellow, Society for Policy Studies, said.
But Modi, whose U.S. visa was revoked in 2005 for his alleged complicity in the 2002 Gujarat riots, was unlikely to visit the U.S. in a hurry, he said in a talk on "India-U.S. Ties under Narendra Modi" at the Hudson Institute, a Washington think tank.
In Bhaskar's view the UN general assembly session in September would be the first contact between the U.S. and Indian leaders.
Modi's first priority was the seven-nation South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation and Japan. Modi has little foreign policy experience yet he "hit the ground running" with an invitation to SAARC leaders to attend his swearing-in ceremony.
"With that one act Modi has energised a moribund SAARC," Bhaskar said and he expected the new Indian leader to do the same with "moribund" India-U.S. relations.
