3 Weeks Ahead Of Modi’s US Visit, 24K Indian Americans Sign Up For PM’s New York Event

New Delhi: There are still more than three weeks to go for Narendra Modi’s visit to the United States to attend the United Nations’ Summit of the Future on September 22-23, but people are already queuing up for another event featuring the Prime Minister.

Over 24,000 Indian Americans have signed up for Modi’s event at Uniondale in New York on September 22, said the organisers Indo-American Community of USA (IACU) — a non-profit organisation that works to promote unity within Indo-American community through cultural events and public programmes.

The capacity of the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, which will host Modi, is no more than 15,000.

Registrations for the event have come through 590 community organisations from across the US, all of which signed up as Welcome Partners.

“Indian Americans from at least 42 states are expected to attend, and the response has been particularly strong from the tri-state area (New York, New Jersey and Connecticut),” IACU said in a statement.

The specially curated event ‘Modi & US: Progress Together’ will see attendees and participants from across religious communities — Jewish, Zoroastrian, Jain, Christian, Sikh, Muslim and Hindu.

“They also represent a significant cross-section of India’s diverse languages, including Hindi, Telugu, Punjabi, Tamil, Bengali, Malayalam, Gujarati, and others. In addition to remarks by Prime Minister Modi, the event will showcase cultural performances and appearances by prominent Indian Americans in business, science, entertainment, and the arts,” the organisers informed.

The event will 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.”

On his previous visits to the US after becoming India’s PM, Modi regaled large Indian American audiences with his speeches and interactions with the diaspora in San Jose (2015) and Houston (2019).