How 'Howdy Modi' was planned? The inside story

 

 

I had a planned visit to the UK and Germany in the last week of June. Attending India Week organized by my dear friend Manoj Ladwa, viewing India-England world cup match in Birmingham and a day-long visit to Berlin was my overall schedule. While watching the match, I and Manoj received a message that External Affairs Minister Dr. Jaishankar would like to meet us. We didn’t know the agenda then. Scheduling a meeting with him was not easy. He also had his Rajya Sabha election from Gujarat. Finally, we decided to meet him in Ahmedabad itself. Myself, Manoj and our third partner in crime Anand from the US landed from different directions in Ahmedabad and met Dr. Jaishankar over delicious Gujarati Thali at Agyashi restaurant. The discussions were on various topics of mutual interests. One issue was also what can be done in case PM goes to the USA though it was not clear to me if it would actually happen.

 

Simultaneously, community leaders from various parts of the US were flooding mails and telephones with suggestions. Chicago and Houston were two obvious choices. Presence of strong diaspora at both places was the main reason for these two cities. After a lot of discussions and deliberations, it was decided sometime in mid-July to organize the event in Houston. The day this decision was conveyed to me, the same day I took the flight to Houston. I knew there we didn’t have much time.

 

This journey was nothing but smooth. As soon as I reached Delhi airport, I was told that I would not able to catch connecting flight to Houston from Frankfurt. Airspace ban by Pakistan was the culprit. I was booked on an alternate route of Delhi-Frankfurt-Austin-Houston. I had to literally run to catch Austin flight at Frankfurt airport. When I landed at Austin, I didn’t get my checked-in bag. So I missed connecting flight to Houston. Somehow I reached Houston late night. Next day I had to rush to the mall to buy essential cloths. On my return flight from DC ya 10 pm, as soon as I got into the plane, I slept off, after a couple of hours, when I got up, I realized that plane was still at the gate. Naturally, I missed connecting flight in Frankfurt, I was booked on Frankfurt-Munich-Delhi route next day. So confident I was that my bag would not accompany me, I asked the crew member to check the same. She came with the news I had anticipated. But I was anyway going home so there was not much issue.

 

Anyway, next 3-4 days in Houston, I had my routine of meeting various community leaders, our core supporters, giving them an insight of intricacies of organizing such event, sharing past experiences, etc. I could also manage to visit Austin and meet my dear sister-in-law Deepa and her family. I returned to Delhi after a week.

 

 

August was very hectic. I went to Kathmandu in early August and again left for Houston via Bahrain. PM was to visit Bahrain so I just went there for a day-time visit to discuss the preparations. Dubai-Houston was sixteen-hour flight, the longest one I ever had in my life. By the time I reached Houston, almost all the systems were in place in Houston. Registration was open for organizations, the website was running, volunteer teams were being organized, NRG stadium was finalized (though the contract was not signed), an organizing committee was meeting regularly to take a review of the progress. I was quite sure of the success of the event.

 

I returned from Houston and in less than 48 hours, flew to Beijing along with BJP delegation. The same day, we got news of the sad demise of Arun Jaitley. We left Delhi in a very sad mood. While in Beijing, I got a message that President Trump might come to Howdy Modi event. I skipped the last leg of China trip and retired to Delhi.

Next 10 days were full of discussion between organizers and other stakeholders in the program on various aspects of this new development. Organizing committee had invited several Congressmen (of US Congress), Governors, other elected officials, and President Trump too. They were also careful to make it a bipartisan event. Very few people were aware of this development, while others were busy in other activities.

 

When the number of registrants crossed 50000, organizers started putting new registrations on the waitlist and simultaneously started asking confirmation of those who have already registered. The biggest challenge was to assign a specific seat number to every attendee. Typically, this has been done by professional agencies. But they were too costly for us to afford. Therefore this entire task was carried out by the volunteers. And it was not easy. Volunteers literally worked 18-20  hours a day for last few days before the event to make it flawless. In addition, there was a list of prominent members of Indian diaspora who were to join for a special community lunch where Congressmen too were to join. This event was after the main event and at the location half a kilometer away from the main venue. The challenge was to keep them together and move them quickly to a new location without mixing them with the rest of the crowd.

 

Detailed instructions were sent to every person on how to reach the venue, which parking lot they should use based on their seating position. There are more than 20000 car parking slots available at NRG across the stadium. People were encouraged for carpool so as to Minimise traffic jam. In addition, close to 150 buses were arranged from different parts of Houston, their routes, stoppages were meticulously planned and communicated to people in advance. NRG stadium rules did not permit outside food. Special arrangements were worked out with regular contractors of the stadium for subsidized Indian food and water.

 

I reached Houston on Sunday 15th Sept and directly went to attend a meeting of volunteers and community leaders. While the meeting was ongoing, White House issued a formal statement announcing the presence of POTUS at the event. Very next day their advance team arrived and the new collaborative project began. Needless to say that they were more organized, professional and perfectionist. But they too were aware that this was a community program and not a government one. When they saw our preparations, they too were pleasantly surprised. They were very cooperative, trying to understand our planning, our viewpoints, in all discussions. They were equally keen to make this event a great success.

 

One example will suffice to explain collaboration between White House team and our organizers. PM Modiji mostly use transparent podium for such events, while POTUS uses special podium with presidential seal/emblem over it. The initial idea is to use two different podiums for two leaders. But it would be a time-consuming exercise to change it, fix microphones, etc. So we thought of using a single podium. In order to accommodate this, WH decided to design a neutral design on the podium (rather than presidential seal) so that it can be used by both the leaders. A beautiful emblem depicting flags of both countries was designed specifically for this event.

 

With the exception of a slight delay in starting the program, everything went as planned. People started pouring in from 6 am. Everything went as planned. We witnessed history being created in front of our eyes. Victory lap around the stadium jointly by both the leaders was the climax of the entire program.

 

Lot has been written about my role in this event. As I have repeatedly said, no such event can be organized by one person, esp someone coming from overseas. More than one thousand volunteers worked day and night for several days to plan and execute the plan to perfection. Just two days back before 22nd, I called one key organizer at 8 am and casually asked if he was home or had already reached Howdy Modi office. He smiled and said that he came office previous morning and yet to go back. On the event day, more than 300 volunteers reached the venue before 4 am. These are just a few examples.

 

The number of phone calls, messages I am receiving in last two days from all over the world show that everyone is simply mesmerized by the scale, grandeur, speeches, chemistry of both the leaders, perfect organization and equally perfect execution of the entire events.

 

For me, it was 21st event I was involved in but every event, big and small, has its unique intricacies and challenges. Organizing this in such a short time was a big challenge. Every volunteer accepted it gladly and executed it to the end perfectly. Simply amazing.

 

I know that hundreds of volunteers have spent their time, energy, sweat and gave up their good night sleep for days to make this event successful. My friends Manoj and Anand played a pivotal role to connect all dots, kept the tab on every small and big part of this giant task and still remained accessible. Their ability to work on micro details without losing sight on the big picture played an indispensable role in the success of this event.

 

One more person I would like to mention is, of course, Arun Kankani. I have learned over the years that in any such event, you need someone who would work in the background, remained focused and maintain tranquillity in an otherwise tense atmosphere. Arun ji played this role to perfection.

 

The list is very long to take individual names so I won’t venture into it but I express my deep sense of gratitude to each and everyone who contributed to this mammoth task.