US visa rejection to ties with Xi, Modi shares views on key topics

Highlights from PM's podcast

- HT Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that a decision by the US to deny him a visa in 2005 when he was the chief minister of Gujarat was an insult of an elected government, the state and the country, adding that he was certain at the time that one day, the whole world will be standing in queue to enter India.

In a two-hour-long podcast with Zerodha founder Nikhil Kamath, Modi spoke about a range of issues -- he said that Chinese premier Xi Jinping had told him about their "special connect"; that Mahatma Gandhi and VD Savarkar may have taken different paths but shared a "common ideology of freedom"; and that his life's mantra was that he could make mistakes as a human being, but should never do anything with wrong intentions.

"I was the chief minister of a democratically elected government when the American government refused to give me a visa. As an individual, going to America was not a big thing, I had visited before also; but I felt the disrespect of an elected government, the state and the country. I was in a dilemma, what was happening? How could it be that some people spread lies and this happened?"

Modi said he held a press conference the same day where he informed the people that the American government had rejected his visa. "I also said that I see an India where the world will stand in queue for a visa. This is my statement in 2005, and today we are standing in 2025. So, I can see that now, the time is of India."