Why PM Narendra Modi took time out for Sikhs, Patels

SAN JOSE: So why did PM Modi make time in Silicon Valley , on what was ostensibly a tech sortie, to meet two specific communities, Sikhs and Gujaratis? At the risk of piquing India's myriad other groups, it turns out that he was reaching out to two of the more disenchanted communities in India -or at least tried to show that he has the support of their brethren.

The call on the PM by the Gujarati community was a cover for him being greeted by Patels and Patidars in the US who have stood by him, as against a small group based on the East Coast and South that have aligned with the agitators from India.

Similarly, the PM wanted to demonstrate that both India and he personally have the support of a wide range of Sikh groups in the US as opposed to a small group of separatists who manage to make news through legal stratagems incorporating outlandish claims like mass conversion and genocide in India.

The Sikh meeting was aimed at mollifying a com munity that would have felt hard done by the PM's decision (made for him by his security mandarins) not to visit the headquarters of the Ghadar Party, a Punjabi dominated outfit that fought for India's independence.

The logistics of getting the PM out to a crowded and tricky part of San Francisco scuppered the plans, but Modi made up for it with co pious references to Ghadar Party and Shaheed Bhagat Singh in his speech, besides receiving Sikh groups.

Those who called on the PM included descendants of Ghadar Party activists, Sikhs from Yuba City , a California town that has a sizeable Sikh population and even elected a Sikh mayor, and family members of the Wisconsin Oak Creed gurdwara shooting victims. The PM also sprang a surprise meeting with education innovator Salman Khan for a one-on-one.