(MENAFN- The Peninsula) The Congress yesterday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's US visit was "disappointing" as there were "no major takeaways" from the trip.
"When you look at the outcome, it is definitely disappointing. There are no major takeaways of this much hyped visit," Congress spokesperson Anand Sharma told the media here.
He said an atmosphere was created where everybody got excited and people started believing that the world is going to change and there would be major agreements between the two countries.
Sharma said there was nothing new in defence pacts or discussions on terrorism.
"That India and the United States have a strategic partnership, this is not new. There are many aspects to this. The nuclear agreement of 2008 was inked by (former PM) Manmohan Singh and it is good that a BJP prime minister is showing interest in this," he said.
Sharma added: "But it is important that Manmohan Singh had put his government at stake and the BJP had opposed it. I want to put that on record."
Prime Minister returned to the capital yesterday after his "hugely successful" visit. During the visit, the Indian-American community gave him an unparalleled rock star-like reception.
In a special gesture, US president Barack Obama joined Modi on an unscheduled trip to the memorial of African-American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
Modi, who himself called his visit "a hugely successful journey", promised to replace bureaucratic red tape with a red carpet and invited US business and industry to come to India and "Make in India". In a joint vision statement and a joint op-ed in the Washington Post, something again unprecedented, Modi and Obama vowed to "chalein saath saath - together we go forward" with a new agenda to realise the full potential of a renewed US-India partnership for the 21st century.
Modi secured a commitment from Obama to make joint and concerted efforts to dismantle terrorist safe havens.
The joint statement issued after Tuesday's summit at the White House specifically mentioned four Pakistan-based groups - Lashkar-e Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, the D-Company, and the Haqqanis besides Al Qaeda - and also reiterated their call for Pakistan to bring the perpetrators of the Nov 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack to justice.
Modi ended his visit with an address to the US-India Business Council comprising 310 top US companies doing business with India.
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