The Democratic Party's presidential candidate and US lawmaker Tulsi Gabbard has said that she will not be attending Howdy Modi event in Houston on September 22, but will try and meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his week-long stay in New York.
Tulsi Gabbard took to Twitter to clarify on the speculative reports and said she will not be able to attend the Howdy Modi event due to previously scheduled presidential campaign-related events. Tulsi Gabbard, while retweeting a media report by journalist Rana Ayyub, claiming she dropped out of the event due to Hindu-American Congressman Ro Khanna's call to reject Hindutva, termed the article as misinformed’.
This article is misinformed. I’m not attending the Houston event due to previously scheduled presidential campaign events. However I'm hoping to meet PM Modi on his visit to discuss the importance of maintaining the strong partnership of the world's oldest & largest democracies, Tulsi Gabbard tweeted.
But according to a report in The Hindu, Gabbard’s decision to pull out from the 'Howdy Modi' event as President Donald Trump is going to join Narendra Modi at the rally for Indian-Americans. The report further states that other Democratic Party members may have reservations about appearing with Trump. An official involved in the arrangements told the Hindu, “We are expecting many more Republican lawmakers to join the event now due to the U.S. President’s appearance, and we hope others in the opposition will also attend to show the bipartisan support for ties with India.”
For the first time, Modi and Trump would share the stage to address the 50,000-strong Indian diaspora during the September 22 event titled “Shared Dreams, Bright Future" that would focus on the success of Indian-Americans as well as the strength of the US-India relationship. Describing the joint appearance of the two leaders as "unconventional and unique", Harsh Vardhan Shringla, Indian Ambassador to the US said, "the event will reflect the strong bipartisan support there has been for US-India relations."
“Indian-Americans are an "organic bridge" between the world's two largest democracies,” he said. Modi will be visiting the US from September 21-27 for the annual session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). It is his first US trip after winning a second term as prime minister in May. He will also have a meeting with CEO's of energy companies in Houston, world's energy capital, before heading to New York for the UNGA.
