Indian-Americans from across US to attend Narendra Modi’s event

New York, Indian-Americans from across the US would be attending the public reception in honour of Prime Minister Narendra Modi here on September 28, organisers of the event said on Friday.

The recently-formed Indian-American Community Foundation (IACF), with support of more than 400 community organisations, is hosting the event at the Madison Square Garden in New York, which is expected to be attended by nearly 20,000 people.

“The phenomenal response to this event suggests that this is an important moment for the Indian Diaspora,” Anand Shah, IACF spokesperson, told a news agency.

“This will be the largest gathering in history to hear an Indian Prime Minister speak in America, the sheer diversity of people coming to Madison Square Garden indicates that the Indian American community sees significant promise in his leadership, and an opportunity for a stronger relationship between the world’s oldest and largest democracies,” he said.

Nearly 30,000 people had registered for the event. The final list of attendees was decided by lottery. More than two-third of Indian-Americans attending the function would be form New York and New Jersey, IACF said.

As a result, the local public transportation system are running their busy weekday schedule, instead of the weekend schedule, of buses and trains, so as to cater to the rush of the thousands of people coming to listen to Modi.

Indian-Americans from several other States like Illinois, California, Texas, Georgia and Florida too are flying to New York for the big event, IACF said.
Quite a number of people from Canada as well would be joining the event, it said.

In fact, Modi’s reception would have representation from as many as 46 of 50 American States and one US territory.

The Indian Diaspora community from five Canadian Provinces would be attending the event, organisers of the event said, adding that a number of people are also coming from India.

Over one-third of the attendees would be females, reflecting his popularity among the women.

PTI