PM Modi to visit US in September, address major community event in New York
Around 15,000 people are expected to attend the gathering that will be “unique and different” in its format, flow and themes compared to past events.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address a major community event in New York on September 22 during a visit to the city to attend the UN’s Summit of the Future.
The event’s theme is ‘Modi & US: Progress Together’, and its stated aim is to celebrate India and the US and the “cultural ethos” of viewing the “world as one family, diversity a strength, and the well-being of all people and the planet an inspiration for building a better world together”.
A person familiar with the development said that around 15,000 people are expected to attend the gathering that will be “unique and different” in its format, flow and themes compared to past events that Modi has addressed in the US. “The main aim of the event is to celebrate the diaspora, their progress and future and ties with India.” Aware that the event is being planned in the middle of the American election season, in a departure from the past, organisers intend to keep it avowedly non-political. “There will be no elected officials invited for the event this time.”
This is the fifth time Modi will address the Indian community in the US at an event. In 2014, he spoke at the Madison Square Garden in New York that saw tens of thousands of Indian-Americans and dozens of elected officials including Congressional representatives and Senators. In 2015, he addressed Indians in California’s San Jose with a focus on the tech community in Silicon Valley and the political leadership in the West Coast. In 2017, Modi spoke to community organisation leaders at a smaller event in Washington DC. In 2019, a year before the last presidential elections, Modi and then American president Donald Trump addressed the biggest ever gathering of Indian-Americans in Houston, an event that drew criticism from Democrats who saw India as taking sides in the election, a perception that Delhi had to work hard to counter.
During his state visit to the US last year, 8000 Indian-Americans attended the ceremonial welcome at the White House itself while Modi spoke to Indian-American professionals at Kennedy Center and addressed another community event in Reagan Center in Washington DC, both much smaller in scale.
This year, Modi’s event comes at a time when the American election has a strong Indian-American dimension. The Democratic nominee for the presidency, Kamala Harris, identifies as both Black-American and Indian-American; her mother was a Tamil and migrated from India in 1958. The wife of the Republican nominee for vice president, JD Vance, is Usha Vance, daughter of immigrants from Andhra Pradesh. The Indian-American community, according to 2020 survey conducted by political scientists Devesh Kapur, Milan Vaishnav and Sumitra Badrinathan, remains overwhelmingly Democrats. And while a slight shift towards Republicans was discernible in recent years, Harris’s nomination has galvanised the community for the Democratic ticket.
Those familiar with the development are careful to emphasise that Modi’s event has nothing to do with American elections nor with Indian-American participation and preferences in the elections. “This is purely to celebrate the bonds between our countries in the spirit of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ and the ideas of one earth, one family and one future,” the person quoted above said.
The official purpose of Modi’s visit is to attend the Summit of the Future, a flagship event being organised by the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres in his final year in the position. Guterres has been supportive of India’s aspirations in recent years, including its G20 presidency. He travelled to Gujarat to attend the launch of Mission LIFE, Modi’s personal environmental initiative to tackle climate crisis by encouraging a lifestyle change, and has embraced India’s digital public infrastructure as a model worth emulating.
Modi may also then address the UN General Assembly on September 26, according to a provisional list of speakers for the general debate put out by the UN last month.
Modi is also expected to have a range of bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the summit. While India is slated to host the Quad Leaders’ Summit this year, given the vagaries of the political calendar in different member states — India held elections earlier in the year, there is political instability in Japan with PM Fumio Kishida announcing his decision to step down, and it is unclear if and when President Joe Biden can travel to India — there has also been speculation that the meeting may be held in New York itself.
The community event is being organised by the Indian-American Diaspora Association (IADA), which describes itself as a non-profit that encourages India-US cooperation to advance the “shared values of democracy, inclusive economic development, and mutual respect”. The event site states that community donations will cover the costs of the event and registration is open for partner organisations that wish to participate.