New York – Precedents were broken and protocol-embedded wisdom discarded in Houston today when PM Modi introduced President Trump at the “HowdyModi” event. Typically, the Head of State or Government of the host nation welcomes a visiting counterpart; but that millennia old protocol was discarded for a unique sight to behold: India’s PM Modi welcoming and introducing America’s President Trump in America.
Such warmth, usually between brothers or best friends, can displace protocol for something better: a knowing and obvious joint destiny. To the feint-hearted or mischievous, they need to proceed with caution during the 21st Century, because Houston became the venue when history was reset and India – who Columbus set out to find – and America, that Columbus discovered, joined as long lost family with passionate warmth that exceeds the limits of sovereignty.
Pandit Nehru sought a ‘tryst with destiny.’ Today, PM Modi, the new Iron Man Of India, not only enjoyed the tryst with destiny, but even straightened it out to honor the New India – which honors the thousands years’ old golden age of India – as if reborn with him.
Having come to these blessed shores over 50 years ago as a kid, and always seeking a joinder between America and India, two nations rooted in common values and freedoms, I beheld with supreme delight the Prime Minister Of India welcoming and introducing the President Of America in Texas!
From Columbus, to Indian Tea bopping in Boston Harbor in 1773, to India suffering Lord Cornwallis’ merciless rule after losing to General George Washington, History wasn’t just made in Houston, it was also corrected to honor India’s vital and indispensable role in supporting the American Revolution to paying the heavy price – extreme pain from Cornwallis – for the birth of American Exceptionalism.
Given that weighty history, it was fitting for PM Modi to introduce and warmly welcome family: President Trump in Houston, America.
Ravi Batra, Esq.
Ravi Batra, starting September 11, 2021, is a publisher ofThe America Times Company Ltd., and since January 2022, is the Editor-in-Chief. He is a member of the National Press Club, in Washington D.C., and a member of its "Freedom of the Press" and "International Correspondents" Teams/Committees.
A member of the bar since 1981, he is the head of a boutique law firm in Manhattan, The Law Firm of Ravi Batra, P.C., that handles complex constitutional, sovereignty, torture, civil and criminal cases, representing governments, corporates and individuals, with landmark legal victories, including, libel in fiction, in “Batra v. Dick Wolf.” He is Chairman & CEO, Greenstar Global Energy Corp., King Danylo of Galicia International Ltd., Mars & Pax Advisors, Ltd., Chairman of National Advisory Council on South Asian Affairs, and since September 2021, Advisor for Legal and Humanitarian Affairs to the Permanent Mission of Georgia to the United Nations. He is invited by various governments to address High Level Ministerial events, including, on Counter-Terrorism, including, Astana (Nur-Sultan), Dushanbe, Minsk and Delhi. He has testified in Congress as an invitee of the Chair, U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, and interacted with U.S. Department of State from 1984 -1990, and then again, from 2006, during the tenures of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Rex Tillerson, Mike Pompeo and Antony Blinken.
He has served as Commissioner of New York State Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE), Trustee on New York State IOLA Board, New York State Judicial Screening Committee for the Second Judicial Department, City Bar’s Judicial Committee, Vice-Chair of Kings County Democratic County Committee’s Independent Judicial Screening Committee for the then-2nd Judicial Department of Brooklyn and Staten Island, Chair of NYSTLA’ Judicial Independence Committee, with many more bar leadership roles, including, NYSBA’s House of Delegates for four years. He has served as Advisor for Legal & Human Rights Affairs to the Permanent Mission of Ukraine post-annexation of Crimea till 2021, and Legal Advisor to numerous nations’ permanent missions to the U. N. since 2009, including, India, Pakistan, Honduras and Malta. He has served: as Global Special Counsel to The Antonov Company in Ukraine, a state-owned company, and was registered with the Justice Dept pursuant to FARA; and as Special Global Advisor to Rector/President of both - National Aviation University of Ukraine and National Technical University of Ukraine/KPI. He remains involved in geopolitics and public policy since the mid-1980's, starting with being on House Speaker Tip O’Neill’s Speaker’s Club and appointed member of NACSAA during President Ronald Reagan’s tenure. In 1988, he was part of U.S. Attorney General Ed Meese’s Delegation to Japan to resolve bilateral trade imbalance. He regularly interacts with the multilateral diplomatic community, and during the High Level UNGA Debate, with heads of State/Government. He is sought for his views as a speaker and writer.