Cameron leads cheers for PM at a packed Wembley
The newfound camaraderie between Narendra Modi and David Cameron was on full display during a glitzy spectacle of dance and music at London’s iconic Wembley Stadium on Friday, with the British Prime Minister endorsing his Indian counterpart’s oft-quoted slogan of “acche din”.
Modi was introduced by Cameron as a crowd of about 60,000 roared at one of Britain’s most famous sporting venues. “Prime Minister Modi said ‘acche din aanewale hain’, I say ‘acche din zaroor aaiyega’,” he said to thunderous applause.
“It won’t be long before there is a British-Indian prime minister in 10, Downing Street,” Cameron said. “They said a ‘chaiwala’ will never govern the world’s biggest democracy, but here he is.”
Modi described Cameron as a “friend of India” whose warm welcome made him feel at home. “It’s a historic day for the two great democracies,” he said.
The crowd at the‘ UK Welcomes Modi’ event was an estimated three times bigger than the one that turned up for his high-profile speech at the Madison Square Garden in New York last year.
Attendees were brought in from around Britain in a fleet of shuttle buses dubbed the Modi Express. The colourful pageant, which included a huge firework display, was held in a carnival atmosphere and capped a busy day on which Modi pitched India as an investment destination to British companies and had lunch with Queen Elizabeth.
Addressing the India-UK CEO Forum at Downing Street a day after the two sides finalised deals worth £9.2 billion, Modi asked captains of industry to drive the bilateral economic partnership.
He highlighted the many opportunities for British companies to invest in India’s infrastructure, defence and railways and assured personal attention for their projects.
India and Britain, he told the roundtable, are “economically made for each other”. He particularly mentioned the potential for public-private partnerships to develop railway stations.
Pitching his “Make in India” campaign, Modi said the focus of this initiative is defence manufacturing, a sector in which he has eased foreign investment norms twice this year.
He was flanked at the talks by Tata Group chairman Cyrus Mistry, Bharti Enterprises chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal, and Bharat Forge chairman Baba Kalyani. Modi then went to Buckingham Palace for a lunch hosted by Queen Elizabeth II – the first such appointment for any Indian Prime Minister. There were some protests outside the palace gates by campaign group Avaaz.
Clad in a white kurta-pyjama and a maroon Nehru jacket, Modi drove to the palace in a Jaguar – built by Jaguar Land Rover, a subsidiary of India’s Tata Motors. The 89-year-old Queen greeted Modi at the grand entrance of her London palace.