It’s been two days since prime minister Narendra Modi wowed the capacity crowd of overzealous NRIs at the Madison Square Garden, but its reverberations are yet to subside. Undoubtedly, it was the most impactful visit of an Indian leader on American soil and the international media justifiably went to town with it.
Now that the excitement is slowly settling down, the most important question is what any communications specialist would ask - who was Modi’s target audience, and why?
The obvious answer is that it was the Indian American community. But why? There is no logical answer because three million NRIs do not matter much in India. Their remittances do matter, which they have been sending anyway.
PM Narendra Modi is reflected on a pane of glass in front of spectators as he speaks at Madison Square Garden in New York. Reuters
However, they mean a lot for Modi’s publicity machine. They have been among the staunchest of Modi supporters and have done a great deal for amplifying the Modi-mania among the Indian diaspora, not just in the US, but across the world. They make Modi the most popular poster-boy of the new India that they aspire for and that they could flaunt to the countries they live in. A desperately poor and unattractive India is certainly a horrible image to be associated with. Modi has promised to change it for them.
“You have given me a lot of love,” Modi said. “This kind of love has never been given to any Indian leader, ever. I’m very grateful to you. And I will repay that loan by forming the India of your dreams,” he added. Whether it’s total sanitation or healthcare for all (which he is yet to announce in India though), Modi was selling the India of the NRIs’ dreams. That’s all what matters to the diaspora, a prosperous India that they could be proud of.
In return to the promises of a super power India, what can the NRIs in America do more than what they are already doing by remitting money? Will their chest-thumbing nationalism and adulation for Modi translate to anything of consequence? Not really, but they can further magnify the Modi legend among the diaspora and on the internet. They have the resources to fight the anti-Modi brigade anywhere on foreign soil and in the cyber world.
In summary, the whole Madison Square Garden exercise was a conversation about aspirations that are mostly devoid of a sense of realism. Aspirations are romantic and alluring, whether they are in a Karan Johar movie, in a leadership lecture or in a Modi speech. Selling hope is clever and the Indian Americans, who live a dual life, certainly offer a captive market.
The observations by Indrajit Hazra, in his ‘5 things I learnt by watching NRIs at the Madison Square Garden’, in Economic Times are illuminating: “These were headbanging NRIs, half of whom looked like friendly NRI gyaenocologists, the other half looking like NRI nurses helping NRI gyaenocologists deliver (NRI) babies. The last time I had seen such radiance, such an abundance of communal (adjective of community) joy was when I had attended an Asaram Bapu satsang on ‘Adharma ke das lakshano se kaise bachein’ – mistakenly under the notion that it was the Xbox One India launch party.”
The significance of NRIs, not just in the US, but across the world is not political, but economic because they send home a lot of precious foreign exchange. India is the largest receiver of overseas remittances in the world, which account for about four percent of its GDP. About 25 million Indians living abroad send roughly $70 billion in a year. There is no point in making political capital out of them, but expressing gratitude Modi style is not a bad idea. In return of their money, let’s sell them dreams and aspirations.
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