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Updated: Jul 03, 2020 01:04 IST

In a rare departure from tradition and reflective of growing India-US friendship, the Trump administration replaced the presidential seal with an “India-US dosti flag” emblem from the presidential lectern.

Every lectern from where a US President speaks, be it a joint press conference or an election speech or any speaking engagement either domestically or overseas, carries a presidential emblem.

To the pleasant surprise to many, the presidential lectern had a circular emblem with the national flags of both the US and India.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump on Sunday addressed the mega ‘Howdy, Modi’ event with over 50,000 Indian-Americans gathered at the mega NRG stadium.

The event has been organised by Indian-Americans in Texas for Prime Minister Modi.

This is for the first time that the leaders of the two largest democracies of the world were addressing a joint mega rally in the US.

Reverberating with chants of ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ and praises for Modi, Houston’s NRG stadium is jam-packed with enthusiastic India-Americans as the audience.

The summit will spotlight the contributions of Indian-Americans in enriching the American life for the last seven decades as well as the key role they have played in strengthening relations between the two nations.

Prime Minister Modi will leave for New York shortly after the “Howdy, Modi!” event for a series of bilateral and multilateral meetings including a second meeting with President Trump for bilateral talks on Tuesday. There is an event later that day to mark the 150th birth anniversary Mahatma Gandhi, and, finally, his address to the UN General Assembly.