New Delhi: The day PM Modi begins his US visit on 21 June, New York is set to witness an event by a group of US citizens that aims to create solidarity among the Indian diaspora while, as one participant puts it, “complicating the narrative that the diaspora supports the government in India”.
Promising to be an evening of music, storytelling, and comedy, ‘Howdy Democracy’ is reminiscent of the ‘Howdy Modi!’ — an Indian diaspora event hosted for PM Modi in 2019 in Houston, which was also attended by the then US President Donald Trump.
According to the website of City Winery, the venue for the event, the line-up of performers includes Canadian poet Rupi Kaur, American actor Sheetal Sheth, Indian actor Swara Bhasker, authors Kiran Desai and Salil Tripathi, New York State Representative Zohran Mamdani, DJ Rajuju Brown, and American women choir group, the Resistance Revival Chorus.
Speaking to ThePrint, one of the organisers of the event, who is also a filmmaker-writer and co-founder of the Resistance Revival Chorus, Shruti Ganguly said Howdy Democracy is being held “to highlight growing injustice” in her home country and to “celebrate secularism”. She added that they plan to make it an annual event.
“Our event brings together like-minded people to raise awareness, educate people, recognise a counter-collective and create solidarity among the diaspora. The message is clear — it’s time we raise our voices through an event that is filled with joy and community,” she added.
With PM Modi expected to lead the session of Yoga at the United Nations Secretariat in New York the same day, Ganguly said, “It’s also World Yoga Day. For our event, a few pranayamas with comedians won’t hurt either.”
The Howdy Democracy event will raise funds for three organisations — The Indian American Muslim Council, which works to increase interfaith and inter-community understanding in the US with focus on the Indian diaspora; Hindus for Human Rights, which advocates pluralism, civil and human rights in South Asia and North America; and Polis Project Inc., a research/journalism non-profit focused on the rise of authoritarianism and issues of racial class and caste injustice.
Speaking to ThePrint, New York State Representative Zohran Mamdani said, “I think it is critically important to speak up and be explicit that this is not something that the entire diaspora is supportive of… there is a significant portion of the diaspora that is deeply concerned and in opposition to the current regime’s practices which attempt to refashion India in the image of a Hindu nationalist government.”
“As privileged members of the diaspora, we are more removed from the repression and thus we have the freedom to speak up and challenge the repression and that is the responsibility of being part of the diaspora,” he added.
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‘Diaspora has critical role’
Indian American Muslim Council executive director Rasheed Ahmed said to The Print via a message that Howdy Democracy brings together an interfaith coalition to uphold “the vital democratic freedoms endangered by Modi’s authoritarian rule”.
“By uniting in opposition to Modi’s US tour, we signal to the world that human rights and democracy must come before any shortsighted geo-strategic calculation on the part of the foreign policy establishment,” he said.
“We come together now because US leaders have made the appalling decision to legitimise PM Modi with deceptive, flattering speeches, and now the honors of a state dinner and a joint congressional address,” he added.
About holding the event in New York at the time when Modi is visiting, Mamdani said: “The Indian diaspora plays a critical role in supporting the Modi govt. It has been a source of international validation as well as funds.”
“In the past we have seen events like Howdy Modi, billboards across Times Square… putting together an event that stands in explicit opposition to what the government has been doing and in explicit support of Indian democracy complicates the narrative of the Indian democracy being uniformly supportive of this government.”
Another organiser, who wished to remain anonymous, told ThePrint that while PM Modi is being welcomed for an official State Visit to the White House, which President Biden is hailing as part of their “joint commitment to a free, open…Indo-Pacific”, India is classified as “partly free” by US-based think tank Freedom House and has sunk to no. 161 in the annual World Press Freedom Index.
“We need to make sure the world hears both sides of the story. With elections less than a year away, and Western countries courting India’s partnership as they move away from China, there’s a risk that India will continue its downward trajectory,” she added.
Mamdani said, “There are active concerns about people speaking up in these debates (around India) fearing the ramifications, and I understand why that fear exists, because we are talking about a country where comedians are put in jail even before they crack a joke.”
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
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