'No Indian citizen should be humiliated by the US authorities.' 'And Shah Rukh Khan happens to be one of India's most well known citizens.'
Aziz Haniffa, who has covered every Indian Prime Minister's visit to the US since Rajiv Gandhi in 1985, gives us a peek into what's happening in Washington, DC on the eve of the Modi-Trump summit.
The first two weeks of the 2014 Indian Premier League will be played in United Arab Emirates, after the Board of Control for Cricket in India was forced to shift the cash-rich Twenty20 tournament outside the country because of the Lok Sabha elections in April-May.
The United States has appealed to India to uphold the Vienna Convention principles and ensure the safety and security of its diplomats stationed in the country, as New Delhi took a series of steps in response to the arrest and inhuman treatment of its diplomat in New York last week.
The United States has hoped that the major diplomatic row over the arrest of the Indian Deputy Consul General in New York will not affect bilateral ties with India. In a major diplomatic embarrassment to India, 39-year-old Devyani Khobragade, a 1999-batch IFS officer, was taken into custody on Thursday as she was dropping her daughter to school and handcuffed in public on visa fraud charges before being released on a USD 250,000 bond after pleading not guilty.
The all-powerful working committee meeting of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will take place in Chennai on Friday to discuss about deferring the Annual General Meeting (AGM) and a longer tenure for team director Ravi Shastri, who in all likelihood would be requested to guide India till next year's World Cup.
The seventh edition of the Indian Premier League will return to India, after the completion of the first phase in the United Arab Emirates, on May 2, with a high-profile match between past winners Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders in Ranchi.
'Yeh dil maange more' seems to be mantra for over two dozen former chief ministers of various states who are contesting upcoming Lok Sabha elections on different party tickets.
Hours before Narendra Modi takes the stage at Madison Square Garden, fans thronged in thousands to the venue to catch their seats at the arena.
'The nuclear deal required Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to gamble the future of his government on a vision for the future of his nation.'
Sixty matches (including the four play-offs) will be played over 47 days in the cash-rich T20 tournament.
The United States has agreed with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that the arrest of an Indian diplomat has caused hiccups in bilateral ties, but said it is now focused on getting the relationship back on really strong footing.
India has sought access to Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Headley, the Mumbai terror attack convict now lodged in a US prison, as it insisted on bringing to justice the perpetrators of the 26/11 assault.
'This speech is going to be more of a punishment. I spoke too much this afternoon' A tireless Prime Minister Narendra Modi left over 700 notable luminaries in peals of laughter with his quick wit and sense of humour during a dinner and reception hosted by Indian Ambassador Subrahmanyam Jaishankar at the Taj-owned, The Pierre Hotel. In the presence of the who's who of desi Americans and US lawmakers, Modi once again thanked the Indian-Americans for their contributions and discussed his plans of developing India and the ties he hopes to nurture with America. Aziz Haniffa/Rediff.com presents a sneak-peak into the festive, grand dinner.
'If we could break through this symbolic barrier of sanctions and a dysfunctional relationship, we could do anything.'
Aziz Haniffa reports from Washignton, DC, on Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh's three-day visit to the US capital.
'Both India and Pakistan are now, for the first time in history, very closely allied and connected with the US -- economically and politically.'
'There was never really a doubt, but now it can be conclusively stated that the prime minister has unusual mental and physical stamina,' says Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com who is covering Narendra Modi's visit to the United States.
Modi presented Obama with a richly silk-covered special edition of Mahatma Gandhi's interpretation of the Bhagvad Gita, and recordings of Dr Martin Luther King's speech when he visited India in 1959 and also a specially framed photograph of Dr King when he visited Rajghat. Modi had scrupulously researched and selected these gifts for Obama and more gifts would be presented on Tuesday during their summit for both the President and the First Family.
Lawmakers were not going to be in town on that particular day, and would be in their constituencies preparing for the mid-term elections in November. Rediff.com's Aziz Haniffa reports
Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade has moved a federal court here to dismiss the visa fraud case against her, saying there is lack of personal jurisdiction since she had been accorded full diplomatic immunity by the US Department of State.
'We use the word "historic" perhaps too much, but the prime minister's visit certainly was historic in so many ways.'
Biden said, "One of the reasons why President Obama called our relations with India, quote, "a defining partnership of the century ahead" is that India is increasingly looking east as a force for security and growth in Southeast Asia and beyond."
'A senior US diplomat last week asked me when things will go back to normal. I had to tell her that if normalcy meant getting back these perks, it is not going to happen for a very long time, if ever at all,' says Mohan Guruswamy. 'For the Indian public now is outraged that US diplomats have enjoyed all these winking at the rulebook.'
'Devyani -- she is a public servant and her personal life has already received far too much attention -- and her ambitious father now need to retreat to the background so that wiser diplomatic heads restore sanity to India-US relations as India prepares for parliamentary elections,' says Ambassador K C Singh.
'The diplomat's arrest has led to a major diplomatic spat, the likes of which I have not seen in my nearly three decades of covering the US-India relationship, says Aziz Haniffa. 'The knee-jerk reaction by the powers-that-be in Delhi was myopic to say the least.'
'The US-India relationship is in a different league altogether,' Obama administration officials tell Aziz Haniffa/Rediff.com in Washington, DC.
'The Indian government has accepted and is a party to international agreements, standards and conventions on religious freedom.' 'We did not force it on them. We are not trying to impose something on them that they haven't already agreed to...' 'India has never allowed us to visit, which is very disappointing for such a wonderful country with such a rich democratic tradition. They seem to be afraid to let us in.'
'India is part of our strategic and economic future,' says Richard Rahul Verma, the first Indian American to be appointed US Ambassador to India.
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