Manmohan Singh yet to receive courtesy call from Obama

New Delhi/Chicago, Nov.9 : Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh is yet to receive a call from U.S. president-elect Barack Obama.

According to sources, officialdom in New Delhi is concerned that Obama has put Dr.Singh low on the list of world leaders he has telephoned since Thursday, though congratulatory messages have been sent by President Pratibha Patil and Dr.Singh soon after Obama won the race for the White House on November 4.

So far, Obama has spoken to 15 world leaders, including Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari.

Apart from Dr. Singh, Obama is yet to interact telephonically with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev.

According to the Daily Times, Obama has spoken with the leaders of Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Israel, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Egypt,Italy, Poland,Pakistan and Spain.

Dr.Singh is currently on an official visit to Oman and Qatar and the earliest he can speak to Obama is on Tuesday when he returns to New Delhi.

Insiders say Obama might have been annoyed with the way the Indian government deliberately omitted a crucial paragraph from a letter he had written to Singh during his US visit in September. Obama had asserted in the letter that the Indo-US relations would not spiral down under the next US administration and Congress.

ANI