US policy on India and Modi needs to change: US media

The American media Friday greeted Narendra Modi led Bharatiya Janata Party's stunning win in the Indian election with a leading Indian-American commentator saying "US policy on India, and Modi, needs to change."

"Barack Obama's pivot to Asia has been widely praised. But many critics wish that he would infuse the policy with greater substance and energy," wrote Fareed Zakaria in an opinion piece in the Washington Post.

The Obama administration "has the opportunity to fill in one of the great missing pieces of that policy - a strategic relationship" with India."

"But the "immediate obstacle for the United States is that the man who will become India's next prime minister, Narendra Modi."

Noting that Modi "was placed on a blacklist of sorts by the George W. Bush administration, was denied a visa to enter the United States and has been shunned by US officials for a decade," Zakaria wrote: "This ostracism should stop."

"This manner of singling out Modi has been selective, arbitrary and excessive," he added.

In a report from New Delhi, the New York Times said "with his conservative ideology and steely style of leadership" Modi, "will prove a stark departure from his predecessors."

"His image as a stern, disciplined leader has attracted vast throngs of voters, who hope he will crack down on corruption, jump-start India's flagging economy and create manufacturing jobs," it said.

"But it also worries many people," the Times said noting Modi is blamed for the 2002 Gujarat riots.

"Others fear he will try to quash dissent and centralize authority in a capital that has long been dominated by the Indian National Congress and the liberal internationalists around it," it said.

The Wall street Journal said the "vote appeared to be a surprisingly broad repudiation of Congress's welfare-focused approach to policy-making and an endorsement of Modi's call for more effective governance and more business-friendly measures to create jobs and drive growth."

Noting that Modi, "ran on a platform of efficient, pro-business governance that resonated with Indians fed up with corruption, rising food prices and flagging economic growth under years of Congress rule, The Los Angeles Times said "voters shrugged off the less savory aspects of Modi's biography."

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)