It seemed like the massive “Howdy Modi“event at Houston in Texas made Indian PM Narendra Modi a true friend of Donald Trump, president of the USA. It was certainly not an occasion to watch a football or cricket match, but it was, unavoidably, a meeting of the two leaders on one platform at a football stadium. Of course, President Trump asked Modi to invite him for next year’s first NBA match in India. Modi talked of Trump and Trump talked of Modi amid roaring applause.
The term Howdy Modi became popular in our country amid PM Modi’s presence in America. This slang is the most recent addition to people’s vocabulary. It is an unofficial Texas greeting, one can emphatically say, adding that it is used as a common greeting by true Texans. It is basically a mashup of or shortened form of the greeting “How do ye?” It is also a way to say, “How do you do?” More precisely it is used as an informal friendly greeting, chiefly or mainly associated with the western US states. It was recorded first as part of South England dialect in the year 1563/87. Literature from that period includes the use of “How-do” as a greeting used by the Scottish when addressing the settlers in greeting. It was now exchanged by people all over the world.
As the much-publicised program revolved around the two big leaders, comments on social media also remained in plenty. Rajya Sabha member Anand Sharma criticised PM Modi for having “violated the time-honoured principle of not interfering in another country’s election“, reported NDTV. Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said he “felt glad” at Democrat Steny Hoyer’s remarks on Gandhi and Nehru in his speech. Abhishek Singhvi also took a swipe at PM over Hoyer’s remarks, reported News18.com. The reactions to the Congress’ remarks came in large numbers with praises and reprovals.