by Harleen Kaur
This September Narendra Modi, the prime minister of India, came to the United States. Modi was just elected prime minister this past May representing the Bharatiya Janata Party, and only a few months later he was invited by President Obama to come to the US and present two speeches, one in Madison Square Garden to the public, and one to the United Nations General Assembly.
Over 18000 people came to Madison Square Garden in order to hear Modi’s speech in which he talked about the duty of all American Indians is to give back to their home country. He explained that India is no longer a colony or a country characterized by “snake-charmers.” Now India has transformed and is now one of the top 10 best economies in the world. Modi explained that over 65 percent of the population in India is under the age of 35, so they have the potential to “dominate the world.” In order to achieve this, Modi said that all Indians must follow Gandhi’s guidance of not only nonviolence but also supporting India, your home country. Gandhi too was an immigrant and he could have chosen to live in Britain or South Africa for the rest of his life, but instead he came back to India as an educated man in order to help his country. Modi says to take his actions as a guideline by not necessarily moving back to India, but buying Indian products and supporting the Indian economy.
Modi’s overall talk to the public has not been as heavily criticized as his speech at the United Nations General Assembly. Modi was able to talk about some major world issues such as the rising power of ISIS, the related issues in Pakistan, and he did ask for reforms from the UN. Although, some say that Modi failed to bring up the rising issues in Kashmir and press down on how Pakistan was related. Although, he was able to make his key points known and explain them well, but was unable to fully connect them to every issue.
