On September 22, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed an audience of an estimated 50,000 people at Houston, Texas, USA along with American president Donald Trump. While the event organisers boasted of a huge Indian-American crowd, a video of Indian-American comic-satirist Hasan Minhaj being denied entry to the event surfaced on social media (below). Later, Minhaj addressed the incident himself while on the show Late Night with Seth Meyers (video above).
“The comments you made about Prime Minister Modi were not appreciated and you have been blacklisted,” was the response that Minhaj said he received when he wanted to enter the stadium where Modi was holding his rally.
However, things got really strange when Minhaj’s photograph was flashed on the jumbotron as one of the notable Indian-Americans who were being honoured. Minhaj watched the live stream sitting in the parking lot.
“It was the most Indian thing ever. It’s like, we are proud of you, but we will never say it to your face,” Minhaj joked to Meyers.
Earlier, a video from the venue had suggested that Minhaj apparently lacked the “credentials” needed to enter the venue, which was “out of space”. It showed someone telling the satirist that “some people were not happy with the jokes” on his Netflix show, Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj.
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