Finance
US Congress leaders have invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to address a joint gathering of lawmakers during his planned state visit in June, making him the first Indian leader to receive this uncommon honor from Washington D.C.
However, there has been no news from New Delhi on whether the Prime Minister has accepted the invitation.
“During your address, you will have the opportunity to share your vision for India’s future and speak to the global challenges our countries both face,” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries jointly wrote in a letter to Modi on Friday.
This is a bipartisan invitation that underscores the bipartisan support for US-India relations, which transcends the parties in power on both sides and the occupants of 7 Race Course and the White House.
Prime Minister Modi will pay his first official visit to the United States on June 22 at the invitation of President Joe Biden, and will be honored with a state supper, a first for an Indian leader in 14 years. Former President Barack Obama hosted then-Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2009.
However, Modi would be the first Indian Prime Minister to address the US Congress twice. His first speech occurred in 2016, and it is memorable for a phrasing he used to describe the arduous journey taken by the bilateral relationship: it had “overcome the hesitations of history”.
Modi became the sixth Indian Prime Minister to address Congress, either jointly or separately, in 2016. Jawaharlal Nehru was the first, addressing the House and Senate separately in 1949; Rajiv Gandhi was the second in 1985; P.V. Narasimha Rao was the third in 1994; Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the fourth in 2000; and Manmohan Singh was the fifth in 2005.
Modi might become the sixth and seventh Indian Prime Minister to address Congress, as well as the first to do it twice.
The invitation to Modi was initiated by two members of the House of Representatives who lead the India Caucus, Democrats Ro Khanna and Republicans Micheal Waltz.
They initially stated that they planned to ask Speaker McCarthy to invite Modi to an India summit on Capitol Hill in April to discuss the future of the India-US relationship with lawmakers, policy experts, and Indian American community leaders.
They addressed a letter to Speaker McCarthy last week urging that he invite Prime Minister Modi, and the four congressional leaders from both the Democratic and Republican parties agreed.
Source:IANS
