India’s Independence Day highlights rift between ‘Howdy Modi’ supporters and critics in US

Indians in the US will hoist their national flag in New York’s Times Square on Saturday, but not all of them support Narendra Modi’s BJP government

This comes as India’s diaspora cheers the nomination of Kamala Harris in the US election, and as India and the US experience worsening ties with China

Reading Time:5 minutes

About 50,000 Indian-Americans attended a ‘Howdy Modi’ event in Houston last September. But not all of the Indian diaspora in the country supports his government. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 10:45pm, 14 Aug 2020Updated: 3:57am, 15 Aug 2020

For the first time, members of the Indian diaspora in the United States will hoist the Indian flag in New York’s famous Times Square on August 15 to mark the country’s 74th Independence Day. But this grand event has once again cast the spotlight on a widening rift between Indian-Americans, many of whom support the nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and “progressives” unhappy at policies which marginalise minorities and go against the secular constitution.

“The flag hoisting ceremony is a testament to the Indian-American community’s growing patriotism,” said Ankur Vaidya, chairman of the Federation of Indian Associations (FIA), a 50-year-old non-profit conglomeration of over 110 Indian-American grass root organisations, which is organising the event.

The FIA will illuminate New York’s Empire State Building in hues of the tricolour – orange, white and green – on Friday night, a ceremony that started in 2012.

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the FIA was not able to hold an Indian Independence Day parade in Manhattan that has been a tradition for the past 40 years. Instead, the “sombre” flag-hoisting event will pay tribute to Covid-19 health care workers and heroes of the Indian independence struggle, said Vaidya.

But New York-based human rights activist Sunita Viswanath, who is also a co-founder of the advocacy group Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR), said the FIA is celebrating “Hindu nationalism’s massive and authoritarian victories” over Indian minorities.

The Empire State Building in New York City is lit up in the colours of the Indian flag in 2019. Source: Federation of Indian Associations (FIA)

“Indians should be perturbed about the flag hoisting ceremony because the values and principles represented by the flag – inclusiveness, secular democracy, human rights of all – have been decimated in India today,” Viswanath said. “The flag they are hoisting is for Hindus only. The flag we stand by represents and protects all Indians – Hindus, Muslims, Dalits, Christians and others.”