Narendra Modi Visits the U.S., Again
India’s prime minister is on a campaign to woo the American diaspora after a surprising election result. Not everyone was impressed.
“In India and America, the celebration of democracy is alive,” Narendra Modi said to a crowd of 13,000 in Nassau Coliseum in Long Island, New York on Sunday, September 22. “In America, there is about to be an election. India has already had an election.” He points to the humongousness of the feat of the world’s largest democracy, of its sheer scale — over 1.4 billion residents, over 900 million registered voters, over 1 million polling stations, over 1,500 political parties — and how much pride one should have in it. But all this was the lead-up to one point he wanted to make: that India had elected him into power for the third time, a historic feat.
What he failed to mention was that in the 2024 election, his party’s lead was far lower than many had predicted. And so, his visit to the U.S. this year, in comparison to 2023’s U.S. state visit, felt like less of a mandate, and more of a campaign — one to remind people that for the Indian American diaspora, he still had a pull.