Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi interacts with representatives of the US Congress Aaron Schock (second left), Cathy McMorris-Rodgers (second right) and Cynthia Lummis in Gandhinagar, some 30km from Ahmedabad yesterday.

Agencies/Ahmedabad

A visiting US congressional delegation yesterday invited Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to the US, despite the fact that Washington has denied him a visa since 2005 because of deadly religious riots.

The invitation was a symbolic victory for Modi, a popular but divisive leader who is widely seen as harbouring ambitions to become prime minister in 2014 and has been trying to win greater international acceptance.

The senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader is accused by critics of not doing enough to stop - or even quietly encouraging - riots in 2002 in which at least 1,000 people, mainly Muslims, were killed. He has denied the accusations but they have cast a shadow over his political ambitions and for years he was shunned by the West.

Indian media saw yesterday’s visit by Republican lawmakers Aaron Schock, Cathy McMorris-Rodgers and Cynthia Lummis as a public relations coup for Modi, who has been trying to cultivate an image of a statesman. He quickly tweeted that the congressional delegation had lauded his leadership abilities.

It was the highest-level US delegation to meet Modi since the riots, an official in Modi’s office said. The US has maintained links with his administration at a consular level. US companies such as Ford Motor Company have major operations in Gujarat.

Schock, an Illinois congressman, told a news conference that American business leaders had encouraged him to visit Gujarat “because unlike other places in India our foreign investment is welcome.”

“My colleagues and I were thoroughly impressed with our meeting with Modi and I will tell you that he is a very dynamic person and he has a pretty impressive track-record here in the state of Gujarat.

“We extended an invitation to the chief minister to come to the US and share with our colleagues some of what he’s done here in the state.”

McMorris-Rodgers, who is from Washington state and is the fourth-ranking Republican leader in the House of Representatives, said US lawmakers would work with the Obama administration to ease the travel curbs on Modi.

The issue of human rights was not discussed during the 90-minute meeting, an official in Modi’s office said.

However, BJP leader Vijay Jolly later told reporters that Modi has accepted the invitation to visit the US.

There was no immediate comment from the State Department but Robert Blake, the US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, said in February that the US was not reconsidering its policy towards Modi.

A US embassy spokesman declined to comment on the lawmakers’ visit.

It was only recently that an invitation for Modi to speak at the Wharton India Economic Forum in the US was withdrawn when students and faculty of the University of Pennsylvania protested against his inclusion in the event.

The lawmakers’ trip comes a week after a British foreign office minister met Modi in Gujarat, the most high-profile visit by a British official since the country ended its boycott of the chief minister last October. Modi has also been invited to a session of the European Parliament, his website says.

Diplomats in New Delhi say that given Modi’s rising star, it is important for foreign governments to get to know him better.