Premier of India gets warm welcome in San Jose
Thousands cheer pledge to boost development of nation’s tech economy
A raucous, jubilant crowd greeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the SAP Center in San Jose on Sunday, as thousands thronged to see the man who has promised to turn India into the next Silicon Valley.
“People are now saying that the 21st century is India’s,” said the prime minister to an estimated crowd of 18,000. “The world is now believing this.”
Modi, who is bullish on Twitter and adamant about boosting the nation’s tech economy through a campaign he’s called Digital India, generated adoration and near giddiness Sunday,
at the tail end of a diplomatic mission that included meetings with Gov. Jerry Brown, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk, and Apple CEO Tim Cook, among others.
“It’s a rock concert,” said Bhrigu Jhabua, an angel investor from San Francisco, gesturing toward a dance circle that had formed outside the center’s general admission entrances. Among the attendees were men in traditional sequined kurtas and small armies of people wearing Tshirts with the hashtag #PMModiInCA. Some people had Indian flags painted on their faces. Some posed for photos in front of a Prime Minister Modi backdrop. Some waved fists and chanted Modi’s name, hours before the prime minister’s scheduled appearance at the arena.
Promoting outreach
Jhabua, who was born in India, was optimistic about the prime minister’s efforts to increase Internet access and attract venture capital.
“There’s an old school of thought, which was to sit back and do nothing about anything,” Jhabua said, suggesting that previous Indian leaders hadn’t done enough to boost the country’s tech economy. “The new school is about outreach,” he said.
Bhanu Sharma, an Indian startup founder who immigrated to the U.S. in 2000, said he hoped the prime minister’s tour would encourage more tech companies to take a chance on India, which comprises one of the largest and fastest-growing Internet markets in the world.
He also hopes Modi will change the popular mind-set in India. The middle class there has long emphasized job security over go-it-alone entrepreneurship, he said. As a result, many Indians who could be inventing products or starting companies are instead working for someone else.
Sharma said he left India out of frustration because he couldn’t amass enough capital to start a company.
“In India, no one would fund me,” he said. “They said, ‘We’re not a product nation.’”
Scores of protesters
But not every Indian in Silicon Valley is enamored of the prime minister.
Karthik Ramanathan, a software engineer who also grew up in India but immigrated to San Jose 13 years ago, arrived at the SAP Center parking lot with a poster denouncing Modi as the country’s “Prime Murderer.”
Ramanathan was among scores of protesters — including the activist group Sikhs for Justice — who gathered outside the building to accuse the prime minister of human rights violations, including a religious campaign to turn India into a Hindu nation.
“We can’t talk about tech without talking about its impact on humanity,” said Ramanathan, who worries that India’s political leadership could use new technology to crack down on protesters.
But the protests didn’t phase Parul Damani, a housewife from Cupertino who beamed when asked what brought her to SAP Center.
“We are proud of him,” Damani said. “We want him to expand our country.”