Thanks for the report. Really appreciate hearing from those who were on the scene.CRamS wrote:Guys, unbelievable, but reading the twitter line of shudh English speaking ISI mouthpieces like Mosharaff Zaidi, and our Paki pasnad traitors, they would have you believe that there were large scale protests. My bloody foot.
I was there from start to finish at the venue. And both while going in and coming out, I stopped by see the protests. At best a few 100. And the Houston, TX police honchos, wondering what all this is about in the first place , made sure that the protesters did not enter the venue. And for me, in a perverse way, it was a KLPD . Because without being a rif-raf, I wanted to do a "Bharat mata ki Jai", "Kashmir nahi banega Pakistan, Kashmir rahega Hindustan mein" protests of my own in front of them. So following twitter lines of chutiyas gave me a glimpse of how false propaganda and fake news and narratives can be peddled in this day of instant social media.
That said guys, please don't jump all over me, but I was disappointed with 2 things:
1. The Indian American crowd was boisterous with their Modi Modi chants. Nothing wrong with that. After all, ModiJi was the star of the day. But I was disappointed that when Trump was speaking or in general, very few American flags went up. It was mostly Indian flags. I mean this was an event celebrating India US friendship, held in a mega US city, and that too attended by none other than US president hosting Indian PM, and I felt the audience should have acknowledge that with a little more symbolism. I of course didn't have any flag, but did cheer Trump bahadur's batting for India US.
2. A little disappointed that neither Trump nor ModiJi made any big announcements on trade and economy. ModiJI haters like that traitors filth Badrakumar are mocking this is just ModiJi Trump blo-fest . Also, I felt that both Trump, and to a larger extent ModiJi, were addressing their domestic audience instead of more issues of interest to India US relations. But maybe I am nit picking, I don't know.
3. All in a fantastic 'feel good' event. Atmospherics were great. One small step towards making SDRE Indians more mainstream in US. But long way to go.
About the Indian flags: At one level, it can be viewed as awkward & maybe disrespectful of America. At a different level, I see this rally as a power projection by a "modified" India: We are on your soil, here's our flag, but we have same values, so bhai-bhai onlee.
On another note, I didn't see anyone here or in media comment on Modi's statement that, we are done with incrementalism, we are going to do game-changers only from now one. Also, I thought he had essentially declared decisive war ("nirnayak ladai") on terrorism and its supporters--a very broad category. Since Modi doesn't say even the word "I" or "hello" casually, I have to believe there are big things coming down the pike that will make jingos' hearts happy.