Obama and Modi share Personal Chemistry

US President Barack Obama Sunday greeted the news conference here in Hindi. “Namaste. Mera Pyaar Bhara Namaskar. (My greetings with affection),” said the visiting US president while addressing the media after he held summit level talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. And he ended with another Hindi expression: “Chale saath saath” (Let’s walk together).

Both leaders now share a personal relationship with great warmth. Talking glowingly about his “good friendship” with US President Barack Obama and how it had brought the people of India and US closer, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed him by his first name “Barack” more than once while Obama, in response, was less informal and addressed him as “Modi” or “prime minister”.

“Barack and I have forged a friendship. There is openness when we talk on the phone and we also crack jokes,” Modi said. “This chemistry has brought Barack closer to me but also brought the people of India and America closer” he added.

“I’m fairly new in this area but relations between countries depends less on full stops, commas, and more on the personal chemistry between the leaders. I think this chemistry is very important and will only grow,” he said further.

Obama too agreed with Modi and said their friendship reflected the “warmth” between the two countries. “In addition to the personal friendship that we have built in a brief amount of time we are reflecting the warmth between the people of India and US,” Obama said.

“We compared hours of sleep. It turns out that Modi is even getting less sleep than me. That’s because he is still new,” Obama said much to the amusement of the media persons. Replying to a question about what the two leaders discussed during their meeting earlier in the day, Obama said it was not possible to reveal the content of their talks. “But we did discuss how much sleep we were getting,” Obama joked at the end of a joint press conference at Hyderabad House here, while Modi laughed at the revelation. Obama said this was probably because PM Modi was still new at his job and after a few years, Modi will probably get an extra hour of sleep.

Obama also said that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was greeted like a “Bollywood Star” in the US. “Last year at the Madison Square Garden PM Modi was greeted like a Bollywood star,” Obama said addressing a joint press conference with Modi at Hyderabad House here. (IANS)