A first time, says Rahul on Obama's praise for Modi

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday mentioned US President Barack Obama's praise for Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the latest issue of Time magazine and called it a "first time".

The Congress vice president, speaking as soon as zero hour began in the lower house, said: "I was at the Congress president's (Sonia Gandhi) house and I saw Time magazine... Obama ji has written a long article praising Modi."

"It is perhaps first time in 60 years the US president has praised someone like this," he said.

"Obama is not a small man... World's biggest industrialists are in the US...Earlier, the US presidents used to praise (former USSR leader Mikhail) Gorbachev," he said.

Obama wrote a profile of Modi, titled 'India's reformer-in-chief', for Time magazine.

He wrote that Modi's life story - his rise from poverty to become India's prime minister - is symbolic of the country's dynamism and potential.

Even though the Gandhi scion felt it was the first time an Indian prime minister has been praised by a US president, Obama has earlier heaped praise on former prime minister Manmohan Singh as well.

In June 2010, at the G20 summit in Toronto, Canada, Obama had praised Manmohan Singh as a statesman and said: "I can tell you that here at G20, when the prime minister speaks, people listen.

In a telephonic conversation with Singh whose tenure was about to get over, Obama had said, "I will miss working with you and hope to see you soon."