The tickets for the much-awaited community event ‘Howdy, Modi’, to be addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi next month in Houston has been sold out with over 50,000 people registering for the programme, the organisers said.
Reportedly, more than 50,000 supporters have already registered for the mega community summit in September at the NRG Stadium, the host Texas India Forum (TIF), a Houston-based non-profit body, said.
‘Howdy’, which means ‘How do you do?’, is a friendly greeting commonly used in the southwestern parts of the United States.
The Howdy event will be the largest ever event addressed by an Indian Prime Minister in North America and also the largest for a foreign leader in the US other than Pope Francis.
Those people who were interested to attend the event were allowed to register free of cost. However, new registrants will be on a waiting list as most of the tickets have been booked. The registration for the university students is open until August 29 as part of a special allotment, the organisers said.
Prime Minister Modi is scheduled to visit the US next month to attend the United Nations General Assembly on September 27, prior to which he will travel to Houston to meet the leading businesses, political and community leaders in Houston.
It is notable here Houston city has one of the largest populations (over 1,30,000) of Indian-Americans in the USA.
In the summit, with the tagline of ‘Shared Dreams, Bright Futures’, PM Modi will highlight the contributions of Indian-Americans to enrich the American life as well as the key role it has played in strengthening relations between the two nations.
“On behalf of the hundreds of thousands of Indian-Americans in Texas, and as co-chair of the Senate India Caucus, I welcome Prime Minister Modi to Houston,” said US Senator John Cornyn.
Houston is considered the energy capital of the world. Interestingly, energy security has been a priority area for the prime minister.
“India continues to be key security and economic partner of the United States, and I look forward to seeing that relationship strengthen with his visit to Texas,” Cornyn said.
PM Modi’s Howdy event is a reflection of raising his popularity across the globe, especially across the Indian community. The event represents strong community involvement, with the engagement of more than 1,000 volunteers and 650 Welcome Partner organisations. The event will also highlight the growing trade between India and Houston, according to the organisers.
Reportedly, India is Houston’s fourth-largest trading partner after Brazil, China and Mexico. From 2009 to 2018, trade between Houston and India averaged USD 4.8 billion annually and was valued at USD 7.2 billion in 2018.
It is notable here that PM Modi’s oratory skills and his immense popularity make Indians living abroad flock to hear the Prime Minister. Previously in 2015, PM Modi’s grand community reception to in London’s Wembly stadium was attended by over 60,000 British Indians.
Recently, PM Modi’s address to Indians living and working in Bahrain during his visit was also attended by thousands of people in a packed stadium.
That was a rapturous welcome.
Thank you Bahrain ??! pic.twitter.com/P6R2opIFuJ
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 24, 2019
The Howdy event will be Prime Minister Modi’s third major address to the Indian-American community after he became PM in 2014 and the first after his re-election in May. The previous two were at the Madison Square Garden in New York in 2014 and the Silicon Valley in 2016. Both the events were attended by more than 20,000 people.
