India PM Modi speaks at Nassau Coliseum, while protesters march outside

Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India addressed a large crowd from the Indian diaspora at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale on Sunday, telling them, "I call all of you ambassadors of our country."

Modi spoke for a little more than an hour, following a program of traditional Indian dancing and musical performances.

Before a crowd of an estimated 13,000, Modi, who will speak at the United Nations this week, said: "We belong to a country where there are hundreds of languages, hundreds of dialects. We have all the faiths and religions of the world and yet we are moving forward united."

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

He narrowly won a third term in June, after a campaign in which he referred to Indian Muslims as "infiltrators." But the BJP unexpectedly lost its parliamentary majority, forcing Modi to govern in coalition with other parties.

Muslims make up about 14% of India’s population, according to the most recent census, in 2011, Christians 2.3% and Sikhs 1.7%.

In the ticketholders’ line at the Coliseum, opinions of Modi varied. 

Ritu Agarwal of Monmouth County, New Jersey, said she was a "big fan" of Modi’s. Accusations of discrimination, she said, were misplaced. "People talk about this, the discrimination thing, but whenever somebody is doing good things, people talk bad things about the person."

Bharathi Nelanuthala, 58, from Melville, said it’s a "myth" that Modi promotes anti-Muslim policies. "Everyone has equal opportunities," her husband, Shaker Nelanuthala, 62, said. Everyone is treated with "respect and dignity."

In an interview this week, Shaireen Rasheed, a professor of philosophy, race and social justice at Long Island University in Brookville, told Newsday that Modi supporters in the United States often cite "the work he has done on economic reform and development," And they downplay or deny discriminatory policies. Their attitude is, "We don’t talk about that, because it doesn’t fit well with the narrative of economic reform."

Pallawi Torka, 41, of Ramsey, New Jersey, said she appreciated that Modi "always talks about progress and economic strength." She didn’t think bigotry was much of a concern.

A few acknowledged some darker aspects of BJP rule. Vivek Kumar from Dix Hills, 45, who was attending the speech with his daughter, said he was not a "blind supporter" of Modi. He said the prime minister had given the country "a big economic boost" but also said Modi "has marginalized poor people" and "oppressed some opposition."

"In a democracy you have to listen to people," Kumar said.

Protesters outside the Coliseum included representatives from Sikh, Muslim and Dalit groups, among others. Several held signs saying "Long Island stands against Modi’s anti-Muslim, Hindu supremacist ideology."

Afshan Khwaja, the board president of the New York chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations, a civil rights group, said she was there to protest "the supremacist ideology that he promotes," which "has created division and injustices."

She said the economic policies that Modi’s supporters praise have left a large segment of the population behind. There are "huge polarities between people who are successful and people who are struggling and are poor," Khwaja, who lives in Manhasset Hills, said.

According to the independent monitoring organization Human Rights Watch, Modi’s government has instituted "policies that discriminate and stigmatize religious and other minorities," which 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."

Modi’s government has been "openly hostile to minorities, especially Muslims," Ajit Sahi, advocacy director of Indian American Muslim Council, said. In the state of Assam near the border of Bangladesh, some Muslim residents have been declared noncitizens and herded into detention camps — children included, according to Human Rights Watch.

Modi will address the United Nations General Assembly on Monday.