Biden about Bharat
In addition to commandeering dancing elephants and preening peacocks on the White House lawns, President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden hosted a colorful state banquet for the prime minister. Narendra Modi on Thursday at a party in Washington where simmering domestic politics took a backseat. They toasted to what the President of the United States called “two great nations, two great friends and two great powers” and the Indian Prime Minister described as the “everlasting ties of friendship between India and the United States”.
Washington power elites, corporate titans, tech leaders and fashionistas mingled at a largely meatless dinner where both the main host and guest were teetotalers but rehearsed giddy words about how close and committed they are. now both countries Recounting how “every day that passes, indians and Americans are getting to know each other better,” the Indian Prime Minister quipped, “We can pronounce each other’s names correctly.
We can better understand each other’s accents, kids in India turn into Spider-Man on Halloween, and youth in America dance to the tune of ‘Naatu Naatu’.”
In fact, if it hadn’t been for his lack of skill, he would have started singing a song himself given the charm and hospitality of his hosts, Modi quipped, a reference to South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who toppled the home by performing the song American Pie at a state dinner.
But the US-India waltz, fueled in large part by Indian-Americans who glowed with repeated praise from both leaders throughout the day, more than made up for it.
In fact, the dinner guest list showcased the best of Indian Americans in business, administration, politics and public life, entertainment. Among the attendees, many with their spouses, were the five Indian-American legislators dubbed the “Samosa caucus” (Ami Bera, Ro Khanna, Pramila Jayapal, Raja Krishnamoorthi, Shri Thanedar) and CEOs of Microsoft, Google, FedEx, Micron Technology, Adobe Systems, Deloitte and Honeywell, respectively Satya Nadella, Sundar Pichai, Raj Subramaniam, Sanjay Mehrotra, Shantanu Narayen, Punit Renjen and Vimal Kapur.
They joked with American CEOs with extensive or growing interests in India: Boeing’s David Calhoun, Apple’s Tim Cook, Marriott’s Anthony Capuano, GE’s Larry Culp, Discover’s Roger Hochschild and Cisco Systems’ Chuck Robbins, among others. indian business leaders mukesh ambani and Anand Mahindra were among the guests.
Though domestic politics took a backseat, the air was thick with intrigue in some sections as several members of the Biden family, including his scandal-hit son Hunter Biden, sat at tables far from Republican lawmakers, including the House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who is being investigated. Also present were Attorney General Merrick Garland and Sri Srinivasan, Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals.
If anything, the entertainment industry, usually a big presence at state dinners, seemed to be underrepresented, with director M Night Shyamalan and Netflix’s Bela Bajaria among the few from the world of cinema. However, there was glamor with Ralph Lauren, who designed the green sequined wrap dress worn by first lady Jill Biden, and Indian fashionista Karishma Swali, who runs the Chanakya embroidery workshop in Mumbai, joining the party.
White House records show that the first state dinner was hosted in 1874 by President Ulysses Grant for the Hawaiian monarch, King Kalakaua, a name that literally translates to black crow in Hindi. On Thursday, the Bidens’ state dinner focused on peacocks and indulging in Indian pride.
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