HOUSTON: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump shared a stage and showered each other with praise on Sunday at a “Howdy, Modi!” rally attended by upward of 50,000 people, a rare mass showing for a foreign leader on American soil.
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.
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.
“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.
In his remarks, Modi said that he was “impatient to take the country to new heights” and that “today the buzz word in India is development.”
The event has given Modi, a nationalist facing international criticism over a recent crackdown in Kashmir, a chance to energize his relationship with Indian-Americans who are active political supporters.
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 percent of whom voted for his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, in 2016.
But organizers of the “Howdy, Modi!” event said: “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.
(Agencies)
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