‘Beginning of a friendship’: How newspapers covered day one of Modi-Xi meeting

The “informal summit” between PM Narendra Modi and Xi Jinping, President of the People’s Republic of China, kicked off yesterday in Mahabalipuram near Chennai, with a tour of the town’s Unesco sites, a cultural extravaganza and a lavish dinner.

The front pages of today’s newspapers, of course, devoted column space to the event.

The Chennai edition of The Times of India led with the headline: “From trade to terror, Modi and Xi resolve to work closely together”.  Interestingly, the smaller story selected for the top half of the front page was on how the Jammu and Kashmir government took out a front page advertisement in Srinagar editions of Greater Kashmir asking people to “resume normal life”.

The Times of India also had a front-page piece on Modi’s “sartorial diplomacy”: “As the evening sun dulled and waves softly lapped at the shores, Modi, dressed in white shirt and veshti, edged with a deep green border, the angavastram casually thrown on his left shoulder, walked towards his guest. If it was meant to be a soft launch of an outreach to Tamil Nadu, Modi couldn’t have pulled it off better.”

The Hindu‘s front-page headline was “Camaraderie marks start of Modi-Xi meeting“, noting that “radicalisation” was identified as a matter of concern.

The Chennai edition of The New Indian Express devoted the top half of its front page to the meeting. The story pointed out that the dinner between Xi and Modi overshot its anticipated time limit by one-and-a-half hours, and that there were “no political banners”, only national flags.

Tamil newspaper Dinamalar‘s lead story was headlined “Enthusiastic welcome!” with a larger spread of photographs on its inside pages, simply captioned “Tamil Nadu welcomes Modi-Xi”.

Dinakaran went with the Unesco angle, using the headline “Xi appreciates ancient sculptures”. While the Modi-Xi story was the lead, more column space on the front page was handed over to how the mastermind behind the Lalitha Jewellery heist in Trichy surrendered in front of a Bengaluru court.

The Chennai edition of Mathrubhumi carried the top headline: “The beginning of a friendship”.

In Delhi, The Indian Express played up the discussion on radicalisation in its headline. The story quoted foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale who said both leaders thought radicalisation and terror were a “common challenge” for India and China which are “complex” and “diverse” countries.

Hindustan Times said Xi and Modi spent “quality time”, sharing “slices of history” and “sips of coconut water”. On Page 12, it noted that the Chinese media had adopted a “positive tone” for the summit, saying the coverage was “soft, mushy and hopeful”.

The Telegraph skipped using the summit as its top story, relegating it to a small piece on the bottom of the front page. Its continued coverage on Page 4 was also restricted to one small column.

Economic Times had a photograph on Page 1 but a full spread on Page 2. One of its stories was headlined “Modi Anna”, incorrectly stating the prime minister was “mundu-clad” (Modi was not wearing a mundu, he wore a veshti). The story quoted C Ponnaiyan, a senior AIADMK leader: “His attire underlined the seriousness BJP accorded to strengthen roots in Tamil Nadu. He spoke of Tamil at UNGA; he spoke of Tamil food at his recent speech at IIT Madras. Now, he wears a white shirt and a veshti like a Tamil.”

Balancing this out was a quote from DMK IT wing chief and legislator PTR Palanivel Thiagarajan, who said Modi’s attempt was to “ingratiate himself with Tamils. What I can say about the Tamil electorate is that it is very sophisticated, and people generally see through such optics.”