WASHINGTON: Short of commandeering dancing elephants and preening peacocks on the lawns of the White House, President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden rolled out a colorful state banquet for Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday in a Washington bash where simmering domestic politics took a backseat. They toasted what the US President called “two great nations, two great friends, and two great powers” and the Indian Prime Minister described as the “ever-lasting bonds of friendship between India and the United States.”
Washington’s power elites, corporate titans, tech honchos, and fashionistas mingled at a largely meatless dinner where both the principal host and guest were teetotallers but essayed giddy words about how close and engaged the two countries now are. Relating how “with every passing day, Indians and Americans are getting to know each other better,” the Indian prime minister joked, “We can pronounce each other’s names correctly. We can understand each other’s accent better, kids in India become Spider-Man on Halloween and America’s youth is dancing to the tune of ‘Naatu Naatu’.”
Indeed, but for his lack of ability, he himself would have broken into a song given his hosts’ charm and hospitality, Modi cracked — a reference to South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol who brought the house down by rendering the song American Pie during a state dinner. But the US-India waltz, powered largely by Indian-Americans who glowed from repeated praise from both leaders during the day, more than made up for it.
In fact, the guest list for the dinner showcased the best of Indian-Americans in business, administration, politics and public life, entertainment. Among the attendees, many with their spouses, were all five Indian-American lawmakers dubbed the “Samosa caucus” (Ami Bera, Ro Khanna, Pramila Jayapal, Raja Krishnamoorthi, Shri Thanedar) and CEOs of Microsoft, Google, FedEx, Micron Technology, Adobe Systems, Deloitte and Honeywell — respectively Satya Nadella, Sundar Pichai, Raj Subramaniam, Sanjay Mehrotra, Shantanu Narayen, Punit Renjen, and Vimal Kapur.
They joshed with American CEOs with extensive and/or growing India interests — Boeing’s David Calhoun, Apple’s Tim Cook, Marriott’s Anthony Capuano, GE’s Larry Culp, Discover’s Roger Hochschild and Cisco Systems’ Chuck Robbins, among others. Indian business leaders Mukesh Ambani and Anand Mahindra were among the invitees.
The Bidens also wheeled out Indian-Americans serving in the White House and across the administration — a matter of pride for diversity-conscious Democrats. Among them Surgeon General Dr Vivek Murthy, Neera Tanden, the White House domestic policy adviser, Kiran Ahuja, Director of the Office of Personnel Management, Tarun Chhabra, senior director for technology and national security, Rohit Chopra, Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Seema Nanda, US solicitor of labor, Dr Sethuraman Panchanathan, Director of the US National Science Foundation, Dr Arati Prabhakar, Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, Vinay Reddy, Biden’s director of speechwriting, Vanita Gupta, associate attorney general, Rahul Gupta, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, Richard R Verma, deputy secretary of state for management and resources, Uzra Zeya, under secretary of state for democracy and human rights, and Mala Adiga, director of policy for First Lady Jill Biden.
Although domestic politics took a backseat, the air was thick with intrigue in some sections as several members of the Biden family, including his scandal-hit son Hunter Biden, were seated tables away from Republican lawmakers — including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy — who are investigating him. Also present were attorney general Merrick Garland and Sri Srinivasan, US Court of Appeals chief judge.
If anything the entertainment industry, usually a big presence at state dinners, appeared under-represented, with director M Night Shyamalan and Netflix’s Bela Bajaria among the few from moviedom. But there was glamor nevertheless with Ralph Lauren, who designed the green sequined wrap dress worn by First Lady Jill Biden, and Indian fashionista Karishma Swali, who runs the Mumbai embroidery atelier Chanakya, joining the party.
White House records show the first ever state dinner was hosted in 1874 by President Ulysses Grant for Hawaiian monarch King Kalakaua, a name that literally translates to black crow in Hindi. On Thursday, the Bidens’ state dinner was all about peacocks — and pandering to Indian pride.
Washington’s power elites, corporate titans, tech honchos, and fashionistas mingled at a largely meatless dinner where both the principal host and guest were teetotallers but essayed giddy words about how close and engaged the two countries now are. Relating how “with every passing day, Indians and Americans are getting to know each other better,” the Indian prime minister joked, “We can pronounce each other’s names correctly. We can understand each other’s accent better, kids in India become Spider-Man on Halloween and America’s youth is dancing to the tune of ‘Naatu Naatu’.”
Indeed, but for his lack of ability, he himself would have broken into a song given his hosts’ charm and hospitality, Modi cracked — a reference to South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol who brought the house down by rendering the song American Pie during a state dinner. But the US-India waltz, powered largely by Indian-Americans who glowed from repeated praise from both leaders during the day, more than made up for it.
In fact, the guest list for the dinner showcased the best of Indian-Americans in business, administration, politics and public life, entertainment. Among the attendees, many with their spouses, were all five Indian-American lawmakers dubbed the “Samosa caucus” (Ami Bera, Ro Khanna, Pramila Jayapal, Raja Krishnamoorthi, Shri Thanedar) and CEOs of Microsoft, Google, FedEx, Micron Technology, Adobe Systems, Deloitte and Honeywell — respectively Satya Nadella, Sundar Pichai, Raj Subramaniam, Sanjay Mehrotra, Shantanu Narayen, Punit Renjen, and Vimal Kapur.
They joshed with American CEOs with extensive and/or growing India interests — Boeing’s David Calhoun, Apple’s Tim Cook, Marriott’s Anthony Capuano, GE’s Larry Culp, Discover’s Roger Hochschild and Cisco Systems’ Chuck Robbins, among others. Indian business leaders Mukesh Ambani and Anand Mahindra were among the invitees.
The Bidens also wheeled out Indian-Americans serving in the White House and across the administration — a matter of pride for diversity-conscious Democrats. Among them Surgeon General Dr Vivek Murthy, Neera Tanden, the White House domestic policy adviser, Kiran Ahuja, Director of the Office of Personnel Management, Tarun Chhabra, senior director for technology and national security, Rohit Chopra, Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Seema Nanda, US solicitor of labor, Dr Sethuraman Panchanathan, Director of the US National Science Foundation, Dr Arati Prabhakar, Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, Vinay Reddy, Biden’s director of speechwriting, Vanita Gupta, associate attorney general, Rahul Gupta, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, Richard R Verma, deputy secretary of state for management and resources, Uzra Zeya, under secretary of state for democracy and human rights, and Mala Adiga, director of policy for First Lady Jill Biden.
Although domestic politics took a backseat, the air was thick with intrigue in some sections as several members of the Biden family, including his scandal-hit son Hunter Biden, were seated tables away from Republican lawmakers — including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy — who are investigating him. Also present were attorney general Merrick Garland and Sri Srinivasan, US Court of Appeals chief judge.
If anything the entertainment industry, usually a big presence at state dinners, appeared under-represented, with director M Night Shyamalan and Netflix’s Bela Bajaria among the few from moviedom. But there was glamor nevertheless with Ralph Lauren, who designed the green sequined wrap dress worn by First Lady Jill Biden, and Indian fashionista Karishma Swali, who runs the Mumbai embroidery atelier Chanakya, joining the party.
White House records show the first ever state dinner was hosted in 1874 by President Ulysses Grant for Hawaiian monarch King Kalakaua, a name that literally translates to black crow in Hindi. On Thursday, the Bidens’ state dinner was all about peacocks — and pandering to Indian pride.