The strong Indian Diaspora in many developed countries and a large Gujarati Diaspora in the US has been an added benefit to him, a Diaspora that has always been one of the major stakeholders of his 'Gujarati Identity and Pride' campaign. And that is what is being reflected in Indians giving him a rockstar sort of welcome at the iconic Madison Square Garden in New York City while writing this.
And it is a moment for every Indian to feel proud, especially after his appearance at the Central Park music concert earlier in the day, a gathering of almost 60000, most of them being American students. Though most in the audience would not know him, Modi was received well and his address in English was taken in the spirit of his message, 'may the force be with you'.
The sequence of events was caught on camera and what the world didn't see clearly told what happened really. The whole episode was certainly in bad taste and a very bad publicity in the name of the Indian ethos if we see it in the context of the understated and biased reporting in the Western (and the US media) on Modi's US visit so far.