Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to appear at Nassau Coliseum Sunday, with protest planned outside

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi — a controversial leader criticized over the years for far-right policies blamed for inciting violence against religious minorities — will address a crowd on Sunday at the Nassau Coliseum, with a band of protesters expected to meet him outside the stadium.

The United States denied Modi a visa to enter to the country in 2005, when he was the chief minister of the state of Gujarat, for helping to foment a pogrom against Muslims. Now as prime minister, Modi will address a United Nations General Assembly meeting on Sept. 23 and attend the Quad Summit — a meeting of the leaders of the United States, India, Japan and Australia — on Sept. 21. 

The leader of one of the main groups supporting Modi’s visit said Thursday they are inviting him in part because is a highly popular leader of a major country.

"He’s the prime minister of the largest democracy in the world and he’s the most popular prime minister who has been doing a lot of work for the country and the world," said Jeevan Zutshi, chairman of the California-based Indo-American Community Federation.

Modi was first elected prime minister in 2014 as the candidate of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has promoted a far-right Hindu nationalist agenda.

According to the independent monitoring organization Human Rights Watch, Modi’s government has instituted "policies that discriminate and stigmatize religious and other minorities" that have sparked "increasing incidents of communal violence in many parts of the country."

Human Rights Watch’s 2023 report on India notes that the BJP tolerates and even encourages extrajudicial killings, has perpetrated widespread human rights abuses in the disputed region of Kashmir and has charged human rights activists there with "spurious terrorism allegations."

A broad coalition of groups that oppose Modi's policies are planning a protest outside the coliseum.

The Rev. Peter Cook, the executive director of the New York State Council of Churches, a member of the coalition, said his group supports the protest and opposes "the abuse of Hinduism by Modi" and "all forms of religious nationalism," whether Christian, Islamic or Jewish.

Nassau County officials are expected to give a briefing Friday on how security will be handled at the coliseum. Earlier this week, officials gave a similar briefing on security for the rally of Republican Party nominee former President Donald Trump, who also appeared at the coliseum.

Modi narrowly won a third term in June, after a campaign in which he referred to Indian Muslims as "infiltrators." But the BJP lost its parliamentary majority, which some observers said was a repudiation of its Hindu nationalist ideology.

Nevertheless, half of Indian Americans say they support Modi, according to a Carnegie Endowment study in 2020 (less than the 74% of Indians in India who support him).

The Indian community likes "Modi’s charisma, Modi’s strength and his convictions and his honesty. He’s a selfless man," Zutshi said.

Long Island has approximately 80,522 residents who identify as Indian, alone or in combination with other ethnicities, making up 2.8% of the population. About 74% of this group, or nearly 60,000 people, live in Nassau County, according to data from the 2020 U.S. Census Bureau.

Zutshi dismissed allegations that Modi is persecuting Muslims, saying the accusation was made up census by his political opposition.

"Modi has never, ever done anything which would hurt the minorities in India," he said. The allegations are being made by "people who don’t want India to rise, people who don’t want India to progress."

Sonia Arora, social justice coordinator at Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Shelter Rock said, "People still have family back home in India" and "they follow the judgment of their family and friends." She noted that there’s "rampant fake news" on Indian What’s App channels and other social media, which has intensified sectarian divides.