A missed opportunity

When Prime Minister Modi walked into the august US House Chamber to address a joint meeting of the US Congress, he was making history. Since 1945, only 114 foreign leaders have been granted this privilege. Modi was just the fifth Indian to hold the honour.

On the surface and at first glance, Modi’s speech was excellent. The Indian media generally had positive comments reflecting national consensus that the speech was well thought out and delivered. Sycophants pushing the BJP agenda on social media were a little less objective creating new acronyms for Modi’s name such as “Master of Developing India”.

Lacking preparation Having watched dozens of such addresses, including presidential speeches during State of the Union events, I felt that the Prime Minister’s speech did not measure up in either content or delivery to those of his peers. And while Modi is ultimately responsible for what he says, the PMO, the mandarins of the external affairs ministry and the Indian mission in Washington should take due blame for not preparing a world leader adequately.

The most important mistake was to let Modi speak in English. Whatever may be his talents, speaking English is not one of them. Modi’s pronunciation of words was poor with many sentences losing their meaning altogether. It is fair to say that many in the audience only understood key words, and many times joined others in polite applause in a large display of groupthink.

The Indian mission should have argued with the PMO that there is nothing wrong if a country’s leader does not speak English during a joint address. After all, Chancellor Angela Merkel gave her speech to the joint body in German. Former president Nicolas Sarkozy spoke in French. Had Modi spoken in Hindi, millions of speakers back home could have understood what he was saying. And professional American translators would have delivered Modi’s message in clear American-accented English, generating more sustained (and genuine) applause.

The PMO also appeared to have misread America’s current political climate. Job growth is anaemic and Americans are as anxious as ever. The presumptive Republican nominee, Donald Trump, repeatedly stresses that American jobs are being outsourced. Little wonder then that Modi’s line, “Today, for their global research and development centres, India is the destination of choice for the US companies”, drew a hushed silence from the audience.

What he could have done Finally, Modi made only one mention of India’s amazing 7.6 per cent economic growth. He should have stressed that India, for nearly 25 years, has learned its tricks from the US in creating a huge market-based economy that is a vastly superior alternative to the socialist agendas of many countries. He ought to have spoken about how India stood alone in preventing the global financial crisis because of strong banking governance and strict lending rules. And he should have talked about how India’s human capital is bringing innovative solutions to everyday problems, from launching Mangalyaan at a fraction of the cost to using SMS technology to provide banking to India’s rural poor.

Many in the US Congress are unaware of the magnitude and quality of India’s progress and still nurse age-old biases.

Modi had a unique opportunity to impress Congress. He did well overall, but could have done a lot better.

The writer is managing director of Rao Advisors LLC

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