Live at Madison square: Saurabh shukla in New York
For New Yorkers Madison square garden is synonymous with an exciting basketball match, the home to Newyork Knicks, or a rock performance – elton John has performed here 64 times – but today thousands who have gathered are here to see a new rock star, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Such is the aura of the man and organising skills of his supporters that the event of this kind has been rare with almost 400 organisations joining hands.
# Modi in America, unity, action and progress was the dominant theme that was displayed on banners and bill board.
Amid chants of vande matram and Bharat mata Ki Jai the mood was ecstatic as a troupe danced to Chak de india and born in the US, played in the background the crowd cheered.
The rally was yet another reinforcement that team Modi knows how to package his engagements well. There was enough symbolism, an enclosure of bohra Muslims close to the stage, the message was clear Modi is now the prime minister of India and will treat all communities equally.
The Indian diplomatic establishment was kept out of the loop, the only message that was sent from the PMo was not to turn it into a Bollywood show.Â
The organisers couldn’t resist though. The emcee was a beauty queen and a popular tv host. The PM’s arrival was preceded by a Gujarati folk song.
This is huge, it is reminiscent of democratic political conventions but it shows overwhelming support and enthusiasm for the Indian prime minister, he does represent the world’s biggest democracy, rob Woodall member of the congress told Newsmobile.
The Madison garden reception has proved that our PM is one of the top most global leaders who is extremely popular on the global stage and his popularity can be gauged from the groundswell of support that you see here, said Siddharth Nath Singh, secretary of the BJP.
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