It’s not often that thousands of people line up for hours to see a bespectacled man with a grey beard. Or hang on his every word for almost an hour and then chant his name in unison.

It happened at New York’s storied Madison Square Garden in September, and again at Sydney’s sprawling Olympic Park in November.

Now Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to unleash the same Modi-mania in Toronto on Wednesday evening when he takes the stage at the Ricoh Coliseum. A crowd of about 8,000 supporters is expected to give him a welcome befitting a rock star.

“This is quite unprecedented … this kind of excitement,” said Kasi Rao of National Alliance of Indo-Canadians, the group organizing the event.

Within days of Modi’s appearance being announced, all the free tickets were gone — and the phones kept ringing. The response to a call for volunteers was also amazing: Rao said 1,100 people asked if they could help. Many others, late to this party, asked why organizers hadn’t chosen a bigger venue.

The visit, said Rao, is a milestone for the two countries, and for the Indo-Canadian community. It visit represents a transformative moment — this is the first bilateral visit by an Indian prime minister in more than four decades.

RELATED:

But the openness with which Modi is tackling “India’s social and economic challenges … in many ways makes him more appealing than even a rock star,” said Rao.

The 64-year-old Modi, one of India’s most divisive politicians, touched down in Ottawa on Tuesday evening to start his three-day tour with others stops in Toronto and Vancouver. He will meet Prime Minister Stephen Harper and heads of banks and will attend official banquets.

The highlight, however, will be connecting with the Indian diaspora, which has great expectations of economic reforms in the subcontinent, where Modi is hailed as a dynamic and successful leader who helped make Gujarat, the state he ruled for 12 years, an economic powerhouse.

It will be a remarkable welcome for the man who was denied a visa to Canada — and other countries, including the U.S. — for the past 12 years.

Ottawa defended the ban by citing a provision in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act that bars suspected human rights abusers. In 2002, when Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat, more than 1,000 people died in communal riots in the state. Most of the dead were Muslim.

Modi has always denied involvement in the violence, and India’s Supreme Court has said there was no case to bring against him.

The genesis of this extraordinary turnaround and rock-star status for Modi lies in his election in a landslide last May, said Kanta Murali, a political science professor at the University of Toronto.

“It came on the back of an economic slowdown (in India), on the back of a previous administration that had essentially been dysfunctional, was beset by corruption scandals,” she said, adding he sold a message of strong leadership, economic change and good governance.

That message has worked well in the global context too.

The Indian economy is “expected to grow at close to 7 per cent for the next two years,” Murali said. “It seems to be a particular moment of economic opportunity where India is concerned.”

For the Indian diaspora, that country’s growing economy presents new opportunities.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Murali pointed out there has been a lot of hype in Canada surrounding Modi’s personality. The other side of his politics — such as accusations that he has failed to protect minorities and the pro-Hindu narrative of his nationalist party — has been swept away, especially in his foreign visits.

“There is a caution that needs to be taken into account and not falling entire for this hype,” she said.

While many Indo-Canadians may fawn over Modi’s visit, he is expected to attract protesters. An organization called Sikhs for Justice has filed a complaint with the Attorney General of Canada requesting criminal proceedings against Modi for his alleged role in torture and genocide amid communal violence in 2002.

Modi, meanwhile, when he speaks for 45 to 50 minutes at the Ricoh — in Hindi, as always — he is likely to encounter nothing but approval.

Read more about: