SAN JOSE – So why did Prime Minister Narendra Modi make time in Silicon Valley, on what was ostensibly a tech sortie, to meet two specific Indian communities, Sikhs and Gujaratis?
At the risk of piquing India’s myriad other groups, it turns out that PM was reaching out to two of the more disenchanted communities in India – or at least tried to show that he has the support of their brethren.
21st century belongs to India, says PM Modi
The call on the PM by the Gujarati community was actually a cover for him being greeted by Patels and Patidars in the US who have stood by him, as against a small group based on the East Coast and South that have aligned with the agitators from India.
Similarly, the PM wanted to demonstrate that both India, and he personally, have the support and commitment of a wide range of Sikh groups in the US as opposed to a small group of separatist Sikhs who manage to make news through legal stratagems incorporating outlandish claims like mass conversion and genocide in India.
The Sikh meeting was also aimed at mollifying a community that would have felt hard done by the PM’s decision (made for him by his security mandarins) not to visit the headquarters of the Ghadar Party, a Punjabi dominated political outfit that fought for India’s independence.
The logistics of getting the PM out to a crowded and tricky part of San Francisco scuppered the plans, but the PM made up for it with copious references to Ghadar Party and Shaheed Bhagat Singh in his speech, besides receiving groups of Sikhs.
Those who called on the PM included descendants of Ghadar Party activists, Sikhs from Yuba City, a California town that has a sizable Sikh population and even elected a Sikh mayor, and family members of the Wisconsin Oak Creed gurdwara shooting victims. The prime minister also recognized Dalip Singh Saund, a clean cut Sikh who in 1956 became the first person of Asian origin in the US Congress and went on to serve three terms.
The PM believes they are all children of India, even if they may be momentarily disenchanted with the family, an aide said, explaining Modi’s decision to meet the two groups.
‘India is waiting for you’, PM Modi tells Indian diaspora
The PM also sprang a surprise by meeting education innovator Salman Khan for a one-on-one, ahead of many other Silicon Valley luminaries.
