RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat to speak at Madison Square Garden where PM Modi made US debut

RSS Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat will speak at New York’s Madison Square Garden, the iconic venue where Prime Minister Narendra Modi made his US public debut in 2014. The arena has also hosted major political, sporting, religious and entertainment events.

New York: The Madison Square Garden (MSG), where the RSS Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat will be speaking on Saturday, is a massive arena that has special significance across politics, entertainment, sports and religion.

Bhagwat will take the rostrum at a venue where Prime Minister Narendra Modi made his US public debut as the leader of the world’s biggest democracy shortly after his 2014 election, when he visited the city for the United Nations high-level meeting.

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The arena, with a 22,000-capacity, overflowed as his supporters and those curious about the leader who stormed to power in India thronged to hear and cheer him.

It was here that US President Donald Trump made a triumphant return in 2024 to the city where he had faced legal troubles.

Presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and George W Bush were anointed here by their party’s conventions as their candidates.

The Republican Party held its national convention in 2004, and the Democratic Party in 1976, 1980 and 1992.

The 76,000-square-metre arena in the heart of New York City, ten blocks south of Times Square, is a unique architectural structure built on top of New York’s Pennsylvania Station, Penn for short, which is the busiest transit hub in the US where long-distance trains, commuter rails and the metro come together below it.

Hosting high-level events, even presidents attend sports matches besides political rallies here. The arena is known for its tight security, which at times uses facial recognition systems to identify and process those entering it.

The MSG can change quickly, taking several avatars — an ice rink for hockey, a basketball court, a political rostrum, a gallery for a religious choir, a ring for boxing or wrestling, a stage for concerts or even a wedding venue.

More recently, MSG made headlines when the singer Taylor Swift married American football player Travis Kelce there in July, while a crush of tens of thousands of fans surrounded it.

Two major national-level sports teams have their permanent home there — the New York Rangers ice hockey players and the national basketball champions, the New York Knicks.

A marque of leading musicians has enthralled audiences there — John Lennon, George Harrison, Elton John, Lady Gaga, Led Zeppelin, and Victoria Beckham and Spice Girls, to name a few.