Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has cancelled a reception to be hosted in his honour by the New York Consul General Dnyaneshwar Mulay on Saturday, besides boycotting the Harvard lecture in protest against Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan's detention at Boston airport on Friday.
Hurricane Irma made landfall on Florida's southern islands on Sunday and claimed four lives as millions of people, including thousands of Indian-Americans, evacuated the state.
A special ceremony was organised at the world-famous skyscraper in New York's midtown Manhattan for lighting it up in saffron, white and green.
The Prime Minister's Office has made clear Modi's wishes that the reception planned for him at New York's famed Madison Square Garden should not carry the imprimatur of any community organisation, but be under the auspices of a 'Reception Committee for the Prime Minister of India.' Aziz Haniffa/Rediff.com reports.