While a sold-out crowd of about 50,000 Indian-Americans is expected to greet India Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he visits Houston on Sept. 22, several thousand protesters representing India’s religious minorities plan to decry his alleged violence and discrimination against non-Hindus.

Uniting for the first time minority Sikhs from Punjab and Muslims from Kashmir who now call Houston home, protesters held a “dress-rehearsal” rally on Saturday, driving tractor-trailer trucks decorated with flags and protest signs from the Sikh National Center in northwestern Houston to the NRG Center, where the “Howdy, Modi” event is scheduled to be held in a week.

Modi, who is widely popular with India’s Hindu majority, has a reputation as a conservative Hindu nationalist moving India away from secularism. Despite sharp criticism, he contends he represents all people of India equally.

Modi is visiting Houston before traveling to New York to speak at the United Nations General Assembly. He plans to meet with everyone from Houston energy leaders to President Donald Trump, who is reportedly considering coming to Houston for the event.

Modi’s visit to the Bayou City comes amid particularly tense times in India-administered Kashmir, where India and Pakistan have waged territorial disputes for decades. Kashmir has essentially been on lockdown with mandatory curfews and military crackdowns on protests since early August when Modi controversially decided to rescind the region’s special political status for greater autonomy.

Likewise, the Sikh separatist movement movement in Punjab seeks to create a separate country called Khalistan. There’s a non-binding referendum effort for 2020.

“Our really simple theme is it’s a protest rally for freedom,” said Hardam Singh Azad, chairman of the Sikh National Center in Houston. “Please leave our rights alone.”

It’s not just the Sikhs and Muslims whom are discriminated against in India, he said, it’s the Buddhists, Christians and Jains as well.

Ghazala Habib, chairwoman of the Friends of Kashmir International, came from Dallas for the truck rally and to prepare for next weekend’s protest. She said at least 25 buses from Dallas and about five from Austin will carry down additional protesters next week.

“He’s trying to commit a complete genocide in Kashmir,” Habib said. “He’s saying in India only Hindu people can live.”

Just last week, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan called Modi “cowardly” for stripping Kashmir of its partial autonomy. Khan pledged to address the issue at the U.N. General Assembly session.

Jagdeep Singh, a Houston Sikh promoting the 2020 Punjab referendum, said the large Indian communities in Houston — from Hindus to minority Sikhs — typically get along fairly well.

“But Modi comes here and brings his agenda, so the people are now split,” Singh said, acknowledging that Modi is very popular with Houston’s Hindu population.

India, the second-most populous country in the world, is Houston’s fourth-biggest trading partner after Mexico, China and Brazil. While Modi is in the United States, he plans to finalize trade agreements and to strengthen India’s ties with American oil and gas companies as India increasingly imports more U.S. energy, including liquefied natural gas and other products.

jordan.blum@chron.com

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