: As Prime Minister Narendra Modi prepares for his visit to the U.S. next week and to deliver his first address at the U.N. General Assembly in New York, he expressed confidence that it was possible for the U.S. and India to develop a genuinely strategic alliance.
In an interview to Fareed Zakaria of CNN, to be broadcast on Sunday, he said: “Let me explain — there are many similarities between the U.S. and India. If you look at the last few centuries, two things come to light: America has absorbed people from around the world, and there is an Indian in every part of the world. ”
“Indians and Americans have co-existence in their natural temperament. Now, yes, for sure, there have been ups and downs in our relationship in the last century. But from the end of the 20th century to the first decade of the 21st century, we have witnessed a big change. These ties will deepen further,’’ Mr. Modi said.
‘Fight against humanity’Mr. Modi was asked about the remarkable fact that of the 170 million Muslims in India, there seemed to be very few or no members of al-Qaeda despite the outfit’s presence in neighbouring Pakistan and Afghanistan.
“Firstly, I am not the authority for doing a psychological and religious analysis on this … But the question is, whether or not humanity should be defended in the world? Whether or not believers in humanity should unite? This is a crisis against humanity, not a crisis against one country or race. This is a fight against humanity. So we have to frame this as a fight between humanity and inhumanity. Nothing else,” Mr Modi said.
