Indian community turns out for Modi visit

To the cheers of a crowd of nearly 50,0000 Indian Americans, two of the world’s most polarizing leaders — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Donald Trump — circled the floor of NRG Stadium on Sunday holding hands, a physical show of the message that each had come to Houston to convey: that India and the U.S. have never been closer allies.

For Modi, that relationship brings the promise of increased trade with America, including crucial imports of natural gas, and the possible exports of the sorts of goods that, before the recent tariff wars, China used to send here. And just as crucially, it implies U.S. backup as India’s recent clampdown in Kashmir heightens tensions with neighboring Pakistan.

Trump, too, touted India’s increasing trade with the U.S. And in the popular prime minister, he saw a possible connection to Indian Americans — an increasingly powerful voting bloc who are overwhelmingly registered as Democrats, and who, in 2016, voted for Hillary Clinton.

Before the event, exuberantly named “Howdy, Modi!,” Trump told news media that Modi had called him roughly four weeks ago and asked him to attend. It was, Trump said, a “very big deal for India.”

“I’m close to the folks from India, the folks that love India, because I love India,” Trump said.

The crowd, clearly, was there to see Modi, not the president: All 50,000 tickets had been reserved before Trump announced he’d attend. Modi T-shirts, signs and banners were plastered everywhere; none seemed to bear Trump’s name. Many times the crowd chanted “Modi! Modi! Modi!” Once it chanted “U.S.A.! U.S.A!” It did not chant “Trump!”

Cheers for Modi

The crowd listened respectfully, though, as the president praised Indian Americans: “You uplift our communities and you are truly proud to be American, and we are proud to have you as Americans.

“We thank you. We love you. And I want you to know my administration is fighting for you every day. … You have never had a better friend as president than President Donald Trump, I can tell you that.”

They were notably more enthusiastic, though, for Modi, who recently won re-election by a landslide, and whose crackdown on the heavily Muslim Kashmir area has been supported strongly even by members of other Indian political parties.

India’s longtime enemy Pakistan, though, has expressed extreme disapproval of the situation in Kashmir. Modi referred to Pakistan without naming the country. Speaking in Hindi, he told the cheering crowd, “These are people who support terrorism and who nurture terrorism.”

“I would like to reiterate,” he added, “that President Trump is firmly committed to fighting this battle against terrorism.”

Outside NRG, there were hoards of Modi detractors. A crowd that protest organizers estimated to be between 12,000 and 15,000 decried Modi’s appearance. But other than a few taunts exchanged as supporters exited the event, there was no conflict between the groups.

Hena Zuberi, director of outreach for the human rights organization Justice for All, said she was encouraged by the diversity of the protesters, which included Sikhs, Muslims and Christians.

Twitter, naturally, was more disparaging. “Dogs barking,” one person tweeted in response to a video of protesters. “Smash these protesters,” tweeted another.

Both Republican and Democratic politicians attended the rally. Sen. John Cornyn, Sen. Ted Cruz and U.S. Reps. Will Hurd, Sheila Jackson Lee and Kevin Brady were among those who greeted Trump on stage.

Cornyn, who with Hillary Clinton co-founded the Senate U.S.-India caucus in 2004, noted that roughly 400,000 Indian Americans live in Texas. “I don’t think it’s any accident that the president decided to come,” he said in the event’s press room. “Of course,” he added, “he loves a good rally.”

That growing political power is particularly clear in Texas’ affluent suburbs. Republican state Reps. Giovanni Capriglione and Matt Shaheen traveled together to Houston from the suburbs of North Texas. Both of their Fort Worth-area districts have significant Indian American populations.

As many once rock-solid Republican districts become increasingly competitive, Capriglione said, Republican incumbents can’t afford to ignore an affluent, well-organized bloc of potential voters. And that, he said, includes Trump: “It’s like, now he’s going to look under every single rock for voters.”

Community celebration

But for many of the 50,000 people in the “Howdy, Modi!” audience, the day was more a celebration of the Indian American community than a political rally.

Political commentator Sunanda Vashisht, a former columnist for the Mumbai-based Daily News and Analysis who now lives in the Houston area, attended the event not as a member of the media, but as a dance mom. Her daughter Meera, a junior at Awty International School, was one of the Kuchipudistyle classical dancers who performed as part of the 90-minute song-and-dance show “Woven” before Trump and Modi took the stage.

Vashisht had woken up at 4 a.m. to help Meera with preparations for the performance: the tight hair bun, silk-flower hair jewelry and traditional costume imported from Chennai. Meera’s teacher, Rathna Kumar, had instructed her squad to apply their eye makeup extra heavily, so that people in the stadium would be able to see their facial expressions.

Kumar said that it was a shame Meera’s father wasn’t a dancer. Even without eye makeup, she said, in the dark pre-dawn hours of a Sunday morning, he looked cranky enough to play Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction.

Dylan McGuinness and Sergio Chapa contributed to this report. lisa.gray@chron.com gwendolyn.wu@chron.com robert.downen@chron.com