Washington DC to Patna, the great 2024 game begins
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden welcome India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he arrives for a State Dinner on the North Portico of the White House in Washington; Opposition leaders in Patna. (PTI photos) JUNE 23, 2023 — in Washington DC and in Patna – has framed the lines for the Big Battle in 2024 that India is getting ready for. The red carpet welcome given to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the US, a state banquet by US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden, attended by 400 guests who vied with each other to be there, a vegetarian meal specially curated by the First Lady, Modi’s address to a joint session of the US Congress (the first PM to do so twice), the promise of technology transfers, ending of a denial regime, the signing of space and defence deals, including fighter jet engines – all laid out for a man who had once been denied a visa to the US. The optics of the visit, carefully crafted and painstakingly executed, was as much about India 2024 as...