Sydney agog with enthusiasm as Modi arrives

Sydney: After a high-profile G20 summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Sydney on Monday.

He was received at the airport by President of Legislative Council of New South Wales Ton Harwil. Australian artists also welcomed Modi with the traditional aboriginal dance and gifted him a boomerang.

The much awaited visit, the first by the nations Prime Minister in 28 years since Rajiv Gandhi, will see Allphones Arena at Olympic Park packed with more than 16,000 Indian diaspora.

Modi will also attend a special reception for nearly 200 prominent businessmen and professionals of Indian origin.

“The enthusiasm is particularly remarkable given that the population of the community is 300,000, about one-tenth of the Indian-American population,” said BJP leader Ram Madhav, who is in Sydney to oversee the arrangements. Madhav had also helped organise the very successful Madison square event in New York recently.

Narendra Modi has achieved a rock star status among the Indian community; with some saying no leader since Mahatma Gandhi had captured the nation’s imagination like him.

On Sunday more than 200 people got on the “Modi Express”, a train specially chartered to take supporters from Melbourne to Sydney to hear the prime minister speak at Sydney’s Olympic Park.

The carriages were decorated with the colours of the Indian flag and mango leaves were hung over doorways. Passengers chanted “Modi, Modi, Modi”, danced and sang during the journey, dining on traditional vegetarians dishes from the PM’s home state of Gujarat.

But not everyone is happy with Modi. There is also expected to be a peaceful demonstration outside Allphones Arena on Monday by about 500 members of the Sikh community and other minority religions who believe that the PM’s agenda is to make India a Hindu nation and wipe them out.

Modi has also been invited to address Australia’s parliament on Tuesday — a rare symbolic offer extended to few leaders.