Tulsi Gabbard, the first Hindu elected to the US Congress met PM Narendra Modi in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly on Friday.
USA: Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets Democratic party leader, Tulsi Gabbard in New York. pic.twitter.com/RfTNaq4lMv
— ANI (@ANI) September 27, 2019
After the meeting with the Indian Prime Minister, the US Presidential candidate said, “My meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India’s democratically elected leader, have been highlighted as ‘proof’ of this and portrayed as somehow being out of the ordinary or somehow suspect, even though President (Barack) Obama, Secretary (Hillary) Clinton, President (Donald) Trump and many of my colleagues in Congress have met with and worked with him.”
She also said that she was proud to be the first Hindu-American to have been elected to Congress, and now, the first Hindu-American to run for president. Gabbard had added that India was one of America’s closest allies in Asia and is a country of growing importance in a critical region of the world.
US President hopeful Tulsi Gabbard through a video message reached out to PM Modi a day before Modi was scheduled to arrive in the US and welcomed him to the United States of America. In a video message posted on YouTube, Gabbard extended a warm welcome to Prime Minister Modi.
Earlier this month, Gabbard had taken to Twitter to call out the lies spread by Indian media persons that she has ‘refused’ to join the much-awaited ‘Howdy, Modi!’ event in Houston on 22nd September. A shady website with dubious credentials had stated that Gabbard had dropped out of ‘Howdy, Modi’ event after Congressman Ro Khanna’s call to ‘reject Hindutva’. The anti-Modi purveyor of fake news had lapped it up and spread the fake news far and wide. Gabbard then responded to a tweet by ‘journalist’ Rana Ayyub rubbishing the report clarifying that while she will not be able to attend ‘Howdy, Modi!’ event, she was hoping to meet PM Modi during his visit to the US.
The Howdy event was 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. The Howdy event was 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 focus of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s week-long visit to the US from Saturday to attend the UNGA was not terrorism but outlining the country’s larger role on the world stage and what it was doing for development, peace and security.
In his speech at the UNGA, PM Modi gave a strong message on terrorism to the world. Said terrorism is the biggest challenge today.
