Some of the Indian thinkers, observers, and journalists are questioning the success of the Howdy Modi event following President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Imran Khan‘s joint presser and subsequent meeting following the massive Howdy Modi event, next day.
President Donald Trump in Houston Texas, USA joined Howdy Modi, a massive event attended by a mammoth of the Indian-American community. As per the reports, more than 50,000 people appeared for the event. While Indian media boasted about the success of the event, many of the Indian thinkers shared otherwise overlooked aspects of the events, especially highlighted after Imran Khan-Donald Trump presser, in which the US President was heard extensively praising and lauding Pakistan’s premier.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 22, 2019
President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi demonstrated extremely amicable relations between Washington and New Delhi in the Howdy Modi event, with PM Modi seen extensively campaigning for President Donald Trump for the upcoming US elections 2020. Prime Minister Narendra Modi even hailed the slogan ‘Ab ki Bar Trump Sarkar‘, which was widely cheered by the Indian-American audience. The event lasted for 1 hour 45 minutes approximately, out of which nearly 40 minutes were dedicated to President Donald Trump.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi left no stone unturned to convince the American-Indian community to vote for President Donald Trump, but the efforts left pale after President Trump’s praise for PM Khan and his retraction on his assertions regarding the joint efforts of India and USA against radical Islamic terrorism.
What do Indian Thinkers say?
As pointed by Indian journalist Rohini Singh, “So we organized an election rally for Trump, chanted his party slogans, advocated he be re-elected, pissed off Democrats in the process only to have him give a ringing endorsement to Imran Khan and Pakistan’s counter-terrorism efforts?”
I understand chaaplusi is an integral part of Indian politics but draw a line when it comes to humiliating Mahatma Gandhi, @DrJitendraSingh. You can try and wipe out his legacy but you can’t throw him out of the minds and hearts of millions of Indians. https://t.co/dM2UD8R5AA
— Rohini Singh (@rohini_sgh) September 25, 2019
So we organised an election rally for Trump, chanted his party slogans, advocated he be re-elected, pissed off Democrats in the process only to have him give a ringing endorsement to Imran Khan and Pakistan’s counter terrorism efforts?
— Rohini Singh (@rohini_sgh) September 23, 2019
A complete turnaround by President Trump after a grand display of friendship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Howdy Modi event and his disapproval of PM Modi’s aggressive statements against Pakistan, another Indian journalist was forced to call President Trump an inconsistent and unreliable world leader.
Lesson: never get over-excited about Donald Trump. He is unpredictable and changes his views like the weather,” wrote Nidhi Razdan, the executive editor of NDTV.
Lesson: never get over excited about Donald Trump. He is unpredictable and changes his views like the weather.
— Nidhi Razdan (@Nidhi) September 23, 2019
A frequent critic of PM Modi, Indian analyst Ashok Swain asserted that “A tough day for Modi & his Desi fans after Trump’s somersault – lavish praise for Imran’s trustworthiness, criticism of Modi’s warmongering and once again offering his mediation of #Kashmir dispute”
https://twitter.com/ashoswai/status/1176213008604901377?s=20
He also pointed out the ignorance of the Indian-American community’s ignorance of President Trump’s statement on illegal immigrants. President Trump in his speech issued a warning for illegal immigrants in the USA, announcing to take stricter action if retained government. Swain released statistic which showed Indians makes 5% of total immigrants in the USA.
Read more: ‘Howdy Modi’ is a win-win. But does it matter?
“NRIs & Modi need to clap for Trump more: Between 2007 and 2017, the number of Indian illegal immigrants in the USA has grown by over 60%, from 325,000 people to 525,000—about 5% of the total undocumented immigrant population of the USA,” tweeted Swain.
https://twitter.com/ashoswai/status/1176516256939294723?s=20
Rezaul Hassan Lashkar, the editor of the Hindustan Times also questioned India’s bargaining power in India-USA relations since President Trump again reiterated his offer for mediation on the Kashmir issue.
What is impossible to understand is why President Trump keeps raising issue of mediating between India/Pakistan & on Kashmir (even with rider of "if both sides asked me to") when India has made it very clear it wants no third party involvement.
— Rezaul Hasan Laskar (@Rezhasan) September 23, 2019
MD Saleem, a member of the Communist Party taking a dig at the Howdy Modi event, called it the disastrous event.
Indians Unhappy
While the majority of the Indians cheered the Howdy Modi event, many of them were disillusioned with the fact that President Trump dominated the event, which was originally organised for PM Modi to address the Indian-American community.
I heard Modiji & Trump both till their last word in Howdy Modi Prog.
In my opinion it was Donald Trump’s election campaign organised & financed by Modiji.
Modiji gathered Indian Voters in US & asked them to Vote for Trump.
1.5 लाख करोड़ ₹ ख़र्च कर 2 बार भाषण दिया बस यही है!
— Varun Rai (@VrnRai) September 22, 2019
After today's announcement of #USA's election campaign by @narendramodi ji.
"Unreliable" sources confirmed that @realDonaldTrump has requested Modiji to send @AmitShah for few weeks to plan election campaign. 🤣#HowdyModi@absolutesatya@Being_Humor@muglikar_ @rishibagree
— Akash Jain 🇮🇳 (@akii221b) September 22, 2019
Last night worlds two biggest hate mongers, @narendramodi and @realDonaldTrump were sharing the stage in Houston lets c hw Trump will payback modi for doing election campaign for trump. Desperately waiting for @hasanminhaj shw on #HowdyModi event
— Shuaib Shah (@TheShuaibShah) September 23, 2019
https://twitter.com/toi_DhananjayR/status/1175822695587434496?s=20
In a nutshell of Howdy Modi! Excellent message by the Hon. President of America how the governance should be for the country. Thanks to Hon. PM of India to kick start the election campaign of Hon. Donald Trump for 2020.
— Adv Antu C G (@AntuAdv) September 22, 2019
PM Modi kick-started an early election campaign for Donald Trump with the Indian community in US. Modi gifted Trump his magical slogan “ #AbKiBarTrumpSarkar “. Expected him to say Trump is #AmericasChowkidar #HowdyModi
— dominic savio (@dominickerala) September 22, 2019
Was @narendramodi hired for election campaign of @realDonaldTrump?????
Never seen a Indian PM campaigning for a presidential candidate of an other country. Shame on Modi. #HowdyModi— Upendra Nath Brahmachari / উপেন্দ্র নাথ ব্রহ্মচারী (@unbrahmachari) September 23, 2019
#ModiJi spoke mostly about #Donald_Trump and even campaigned for him, and #DonaldTrump converted this into an election campaign opportunity. Therefore, it wasn’t really #HowdyModi, rather it turned out to be #HowdyTrump.
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The Indian social media users asserted that Indian administration disappointed them since it was not the onus of the Modi’s government to campaign for US President Trump or interfere in another’s country’s electoral process altogether.
Pakistanis Mocking
In the latest turn of event, Pakistani social media users are mocking a blurry less than a second glimpse of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in American President Donald Trump’s latest video on UNGA released on Twitter. They argued that with the thumping success of Howdy Modi event, and PM Modi a partner in an election campaign for President Trump he stood a fair chance of having a prominent representation as compared to PM IK’s full-fledged appearance shaking hands with US President Trump in the video.