Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is on a three day official visit to the United States, was on Friday night (local time) seen waving at a crowd outside his hotel in New York, where Indian-Americans and members of the diaspora gathered to meet him. Loud chants of “Vande Mataram” and “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” rang through the New York neighbourhood as the Prime Minister turned to the people cheering for him and joyously waved at them, before going inside the hotel. PM Modi landed in New York moments earlier, after concluding a series of key meets in Washington—including a Quad Leaders’ summit hosted by US president Joe Biden at the White House.
The warm greeting with which the Prime Minister was met outside his New York hotel is a signifier of his high popularity among the Indian diaspora abroad. People chanted the Prime Minister’s name and waved the Indian national flag amid light showers; while Modi, in turn, was seen smiling and shaking hands with members of the community.
In a recent survey assessing the popularity index of 13 world leaders, Prime Minister Narendra Modi ranked the highest, outracing US president Joe Biden and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, among others. According to the survey conducted by The Morning Consult, PM Modi is the “most popular and accepted global leader” in the entire world. He received a stellar approval rating of 70 per cent, while Biden was fifth in the list with an approval rating of 48 percent.