Red carpet will replace red tape: Modi

Economics will be the foreign policy driver

Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacts with children at a reception held by the Indian community in Tokyo, Japan on Tuesday.

As he wrapped up a packed Japan visit on Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi appeared to be on a mission — hard-selling India and “Indian-ness,” depending on his audience.

If he declared that India was replacing “red tape” with “red carpet” to businesspersons, he expounded on the

Bhagvad Gita , the merits of eating together as a family and even sari-wearing competitions to the expatriate community later in the day.

Mr. Modi spoke at five events, including at a women’s university, the India-Japan Association and a Nikkei-organised gathering.

Crediting India’s IT professionals with altering the image of India, from a land of snake-charmers to “those who played with the mouse,” Mr. Modi made it plain that economics would be his foreign policy driver.

Trust, the Prime Minister said, was superior to Fevicol in binding Japan and India together, even as he emphasised the values of democracy, without mentioning China by name.

>Modi at 100 days: First milestone Rather than tinkering with policies, Narendra Modi’s focus seems to be more on clearing bottlenecks and expediting decision-making.

To Indians abroad, he advocated eating one meal together as a way of building family bonds and speaking in the mother tongue at the dining table.

Mr. Modi wondered whether his “secular friends” in India would kick up a storm because he had gifted the Gita to Emperor Akihito and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. In his view, there was nothing bigger than the Gita to gift world leaders.

“But they [the secularists] also have to make a living. And, if I am not around they won’t be able to manage.”

‘Three Ds’

Addressing a 2,000-strong gathering at a seminar organised by the Japan External Trade Organisation (Jetro) and Nikkei, Mr. Modi said India was attractive to Japan on account of three Ds — democracy, demography and demand.

A red carpet, not red tape, awaits Japanese entrepreneurs coming to set up shop in India, he said.

If New Delhi was “looking east,” then Japan was in a “look at India mood,” the Prime Minister said stressing that India was an attractive low-cost manufacturing destination for Japanese business. “There is no other place more suited to you than India,” Mr. Modi said. According to him, India was a “god-gifted location” for Japan to manufacture in.

Mr. Modi said that 50 cities in India were in line to get new metro projects. “Have you thought how big this business is?” he said.

Several key decisions had been taken in the first 100 days of his government. Fifty-five per cent items had been freed from legal obligations as far as defence manufacturing was concerned. If Japan entered the defence manufacturing sector, where 49% FDI is now permitted, Tokyo could supply the needs of other small countries as well.

Mr. Modi ended with a simple message — come to India and try your luck.