US Secretary of Defence Chuck Hagel arrives to attend a Observer Research Foundation conference in New Delhi on August 9, 2014.
American Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel compared India to the US by suggesting that the two democratic countries were among the few places in the world where the son of a tea seller could become the Prime Minister and a Kenyan's son could be elevated to the post of the President.
"There are few places in the world other than India and the US where the son of a tea-seller in a small-time town can rise to be the Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) or the child of a Kenyan father can rise to be the President (Barack Obama)," he said while highlighting the opportunities the two countries offer.
The American Defence Secretary made the statement at the Silver Jubilee function of the Observer's Research Foundation (ORF).
Prior to embarking on his political career by joining the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Mr Modi assisted his father in running his modest tea stall in a Gujarat town by seeling tea on trains.
Mr Obama on the other hand was born to an American mother and a father of Kenyan origin.