Donald Trump at ‘Howdy, Modi!’ event in Houston today, next stop New Delhi

How times have changed for India is evident from US President Trump meeting the Indian PM twice in three days and chief executive officers of some of the biggest companies agreeing to come for a CEO forum at New York on the condition that they would be able to meet PM Modi for two minutes.

Updated on: Jul 2, 2020, 23:21:33 IST

New Delhi | By Shishir Gupta

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

Narendra Modi had, even before he had taken over as Prime Minister of India in 2014, figured it out. He would take on the world of diplomacy on his own terms and not just go by briefings by South Block mandarins about protocols, niceties or even diplomacy. Modi did get Ajit Doval, who took over as National Security Adviser soon after, to send invites to leaders of countries in the neighbourhood including Pakistan’s Nawaz Sharif for his grand swearing-in ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan forecourt. And they were there.

PM Narendra Modi with US President Donald Trump along with NSA Chief Ajit Doval, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale, US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, and other officials met during the G7 Biarritz Summit, France. (PIB)

The neighbourhood has been important in PM Modi’s worldview but it has been strengthening ties with the United States that has consistently been on the top of his government’s agenda. This was made amply clear by PM Modi to S Jaishankar, then Indian Ambassador to the US in 2014. This was the context of PM Modi’s first visit to the United States in September 2014 when he demonstrated his standing with the Indian diaspora at Madison Square Garden. But if the New York event was to show-case the political clout of the Indian diaspora, the Howdy Modi event in Texas’ Houston is a projection of India’s image of a rising global economic power, and a fair competitor to China.

Also read: From ‘Howdy, Modi!’ to UN General Assembly: PM Modi’s engagements in US

It is therefore now no surprise that PM Modi chose to cut corporate tax rates to make Indian companies globally competitive on the eve of his address at the Indian diaspora along with US President Donald Trump at the global energy hub of Houston. This joint appearance is seen as a precursor to President Donald Trump visit to India, either in December or even as the chief guest at 2020 Republic Day Parade -- five years after Barack Obama was in India at the 2015 Republic Day celebrations.

Also Watch | A billion eyes on ‘Howdy Modi’, how and when to watch the PM’s Houston gala

The presence of US President Donald Trump at Houston’s ‘Howdy Modi’ event is a stamp of approval on PM Modi’s decisive leadership as well as on the rise of India. The President of the world’s most powerful nation does not go attending sundry diaspora events until and unless there is a long term plan in mind.

Also read: ‘You’ve suffered a lot, together we’ve to build new Kashmir: Modi to Kashmiri Pandits in Houston

US President Trump’s presence at the event, contrasts sharply with how Indian diplomats would spread themselves thin not so long ago for visits of a US Assistant Secretary of State – the equivalent of a joint secretary rank officer in the Indian government. A visit of US deputy secretary took the cake and Secretary of State was the cherry on the cake. These events, like the visit of Assistant Secretary Robin Raphel, Deputy Secretary Strobe Talbott or Richard Armitage and Secretary Colin Powell, were taken as high points in the relations between the two countries by the media with reams written on their body language and calibration of view.

How times have changed for India is evident from US President Trump meeting the Indian Prime Minister twice in three days and chief executive officers of some of the biggest companies agreeing to come for a CEO forum at New York on the condition that they would be able to meet PM Modi for two minutes. This is because PM Modi is upfront and candid on India’s interests and doesn’t hesitate to voice them at the highest table. As some say, he not only has the tact and charm of a Gujarati businessman but also their courage. An eagle eye to see the big picture of India and the globe at 80,000 feet while micro-managing the US relationship to the last detail.

Howdy Modi is also about leveraging the economic and political clout of 3.5 million Indian diaspora in US as also projection of PM Modi as an undisputed leader with a vision for 130 crore Indians.

However, the translation of this vision towards a 5 trillion dollar Indian economy lies in the hands of Delhi diplomats and bureaucracy, who continue to suffer from imperial hangover and obsession with Punjabi Pakistan. With PM Modi and Foreign Minister S Jaishankar on pole position of Formula one diplomatic circuit, the mismatch with bureaucracy is the challenge to further cementing of India-US partnership.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shishir Gupta
Shishir Gupta is Executive Editor at Hindustan Times and one of India's top journalists covering national security, strategic affairs, foreign policy and geopolitics. Over the past three decades, he has extensively reported on India's military, diplomatic and security landscape, covering every major conflict and national security challenge, from the 1999 Kargil War and the 2020 East Ladakh standoff to Operation Sindoor in 2025. He has also covered major terror attacks, including the IC-814 hijacking, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and the 2025 Pahalgam terror strike, along with numerous Pakistan-backed terrorist incidents in the Kashmir Valley and across India. He has reported on national and state elections for more than three decades. A recognised authority on strategic affairs, Gupta has covered India's nuclear programme since the Pokhran-II (Shakti series) tests in May 1998 and has written extensively on global nuclear issues, Indian diplomacy and the country's expanding global outreach. He has also reported widely on international conflicts and terrorism, with a special focus on the Indian subcontinent. Gupta has interviewed Prime Minister Narendra Modi more than four times, including Modi's first interview with the print media after becoming Prime Minister in May 2014. His other interviews include three with the Dalai Lama, as well as conversations with Benjamin Netanyahu, Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath, S. Jaishankar, Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal. He is the author of Indian Mujahideen: The Enemy Within (Hachette, 2011) and Himalayan Face-off: Chinese Assertion and Indian Riposte (Hachette, 2014). He was awarded the Chevening-Wolfson Joint Scholarship at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, UK, in 1998 and participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) of the US State Department in 2006. He received the Ben Gurion Prize from Israel in 2011 and the K. Subrahmanyam Prize for Strategic Studies in 2015 from the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA). Since 2024, he has hosted Point Blank, Hindustan Times' weekly YouTube show on global geopolitics.Read More

Get the latest India News, breaking headlines and real-time updates from across the country. Stay informed about politics, government policies, crime, weather and major national developments.