Deafening drums and an uproar of 50,000 people echoed in the Texas stadium as US President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi walked across the stage with clasped hands, sending a message of unity between the world’s two largest democracies despite trade tensions. Trump and Modi shared the stage and exchanged warm words of friendship on Sunday at a “Howdy, Modi!” rally attended by a rare mass for a foreign leader. Trump, calling the gathering a “profoundly historic event,” was greeted with a standing ovation by the Indian-American crowd and his speech was interrupted several times by roars of approval.
“You uphold our values, you uplift our communities and you are truly proud to be American and we are truly proud to have you as Americans,” Trump told the crowd. Trump highlighted the growth of US exports to India, the billions of dollars spent by India on US-made defense equipment and joint military exercises with New Delhi. The US leader hailed the India-US relationship and the Indian-American community as he reached out to an ethnic group that voted overwhelmingly against him in 2016. “India has never invested in the United States like it is doing today,” he said, adding that “we’re doing the same thing in India.”
Trump said Modi invited him to the rally – one of the largest US gatherings of the Indian diaspora in history – when they met last month in France, and Trump seemed to explain his decision to attend by saying: “I love India.” Modi began his talk inside the NRG Stadium, home of the Houston Texans football team, with a loud, “Howdy my friends!” The crowd chanted “Modi! Modi! Modi!” as he took the stage to introduce Trump as “my friend, a friend of India, a great American president”. Modi even used Trump’s political slogan to say the president had a strong resolve to “make America great again.” In his remarks delivered in Hindi, Modi said that he was “impatient to take the country to new heights” and that “today the buzz word in India is development.” In his speech, Modi couldn't stop praising India's "true friend” in the White House, Donald Trump, describing him as "warm, friendly, accessible, energetic and full of wit".
The event has given Modi a chance to energize his relationship with Indian-Americans who are active political supporters. Jubilant supporters dressed in everything from ornate saris to simple dhotis and even a few cowboy hats waved American and Indian flags, chanted and munched on concession stand snacks that included Indian staples of samosas and naan breads - along with nachos.
“Today we celebrate our community and its importance in Houston and all America,” said Ketan Inamdar, who works in the administration of Houston’s Democratic Mayor Sylvester Turner, and painted an American flag on his right cheek and an Indian one on the left. “Trump is very welcome here today. This event is to build harmony and love,” he said, standing just in front of the dais. “Race, religion and political parties don’t matter today.”
Houston is a rare Democratic stronghold in Republican-dominated Texas and serves as the economic anchor of a state that will be critical to Trump’s 2020 re-election bid. Polls show tepid support by Indian-American voters, some 75% of whom voted for his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, in 2016.
A 90-minute show, featuring 400 performers, warmed up the crowd before Modi and Trump shared the stage. “His presence is an indication of his support and endorsement of the strengthening of India’s relations with America,” said Preeti Dawra, a spokeswoman for the Texas India Forum that organized the event. “This event is about strengthening those ties.”
This rally is called a win-win for both the leaders. For President Trump, it was a chance to court Indian-Americans for the 2020 presidential election race where Texas could emerge as a battleground state. While, It was the first time Modi addressed a large crowd in the United States, which is home to about 4 million Indian-Americans including about 300,000 in Houston and nearby Dallas. Some 19,000 people turned out for a similar event in New York in 2014, and Indian-American volunteers living in US suburbs helped run a telephone blitz of voters in India in the run-up to Modi’s May re-election campaign.
KASHMIR CRACKDOWN
Modi’s visit to Houston comes ahead of this week’s UN General Assembly in New York and amid a particularly tense time on the subcontinent. The Indian leader further strained long-simmering relations with Pakistan last month by revoking the partial autonomy enjoyed by Muslim-majority Kashmir, which both nuclear-armed countries claim.
Pakistan has condemned the crackdown and its Prime Minister Imran Khan warned it would drive more of the world’s Muslims into extremism. Members of India’s religious minority Sikh and Muslim groups planned noisy demonstrations near the stadium to protest Modi’s Kashmir policy.
The US-India relationship on trade and tariffs is rocky, though Trump and Modi appear to have strong personal ties. Devesh Kapur, director of Asia Programs at Johns Hopkins University, who has written a book on Indian-Americans, said that while the rally has symbolic value for both leaders, “it’s unlikely by itself to impact thorny trade issues ... but it can’t hurt.”
Kapur also forecast little improvement regarding Trump’s standing with Indian-Americans.“The Trump administration’s hard-line policies on immigration ... have hardly endeared (him) to the community,” Kapur said. “Appearing with PM Modi might mildly help but certainly not reverse the community’s overall pro-Democrat leanings.”
