US President Donald Trump will be joining PM Narendra Modi at a mega event in Houston named “Howdy, Modi!”. The September 22 event will be the first time a US president and Indian Prime Minister will be addressing a joint rally.
The confirmation came amidst the speculations of whether Trump would join PM Modi at the Houston event. This is going to be the third successive meeting between Trump and PM Modi within the span of a few weeks after the G20 and G7 summits.
According to the organizers , more than 50,000 Indian-Americans from across the US have registered for the event named “Howdy, Modi! Shared Dreams, Bright Futures”. The event is going to be held at the sprawling NRG Stadium in Houston.
“Howdy”, short for ‘How do you do?’, is a friendly greeting commonly used in south western United States and the event has been designed as a greeting to PM Modi.
In a statement, White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham said, “It (Modi-Trump joint rally) will be a great opportunity to emphasize the strong ties between the people of the United States and India, to reaffirm the strategic partnership between the world’s oldest and largest democracies, and to discuss ways to deepen their energy and trade relationship.”
According to hisctorical records, this would also be the first time that an American president would be addressing thousands of Indian-Americans at one place in the US. In October 2016, Trump, then as Republican presidential nominee, had addressed a strong crowd of some 5,000 Indian-Americans in New Jersey, a few weeks away from his historic win in the November 2016 elections.
So far, Trump is the only presidential candidate to address the Indian-Americans solely during an election year. In his address, Trump had said that if elected, he would be the best friend of India in the White House.
Indian ambassador to the US Harsh Vardhan Shringla has called Trump’s participation in the “Howdy, Modi!” event “historic” and “unprecedented”.
“It is reflective of the strong bonds of friendship and cooperation that has developed between India and the US,” Shringla told PTI.
The event marks a huge endorsement of the efforts and success of the three million strong Indian-American diaspora and their contribution in all walks of life.
The event will also see participation from American leadership cutting across party lines. This will be reflective of the strong bipartisan support for India-US relations.
White House officials told PTI that a request was made by Prime Minister Modi to President Trump when the two met in France last month on the sidelines of the G7 summit.
Trump, who enjoys a great chemistry and friendship with Modi, “immediately accepted” the invitation to join him in Houston and directed his officials and secret service, officials said.
Trump and Modi’s political managers have apparently been in touch since the two leaders met in Biarritz, France on the sidelines of the G-7 Summit on August 26 and came up with the idea. The Indian side has reportedly promised to buy more oil and weapons from the US which is being considered to be a strong reason for Trump decision to attend the rally.
The Houston event will be Modi’s third major address to the Indian-American community after he became the prime minister in 2014 and the first after his re-election in May.
The previous two were at the Madison Square Garden in New York in 2014 and the Silicon Valley in 2016. Both the events were attended by more than 20,000 people.
Prime Minister Modi will land in Houston on September 21. On September 22, Sunday, the PM would be addressing the ‘Howdy Modi’ event around 11am at the NRG stadium. He will also be attending an ‘energy roundtable’ with top business leaders from the energy sector in the US.
Indo-US relations were seen as getting strained when President Donald Trump’s statements on the Kashmir issue had racked up controversy in both India and Pakistan.
But this latest update signals that all is well between India and US. And the stage is set for the unprecedented political “joint venture” to unveil.
The joint rally is, undoubtedly, seen as two-way facilitation process between Modi and Trump. Narendra Modi’s presence would be helping Trump to sway some of the Indian American votes his way in the up-coming re-election in 2020. Trump faces a tough compettion with at least two Republicans who have vowed to challenge the incumbent.
The nearly 3.2 million strong Indian American community constitute the richest ethnic group in the United States. They are also the most highly educated cohort, and thus hold a significant political influence.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s presence in the rally would also be helping PM Modi, whose recent decision to void the special status of Jammu and Kashmir created a huge controversy both at home and abroad. Trump’s appearance alongside Modi would essentially send the message – the larger US-India relationship is too big to be derailed by Kashmir.
According to some sources, however, the event might not unfold as smoothly as expected. Around 10,000 protesters backed by Pakistan have vowed to collect outside the NRG Stadium in Houston to disrupt the show. But the organizers argue that the secret service presence will ensure the protesters are forced to a distant spot and out of vision.
Nevertheless, how the event truly unfolds and what it will signify for Indo-US relations, will get clear only on September 22.
