Should Modi's India be Wary of Trump 2.0?
The man Trump once called "a true friend" could leverage India's position as a geopolitical counterweight to China amid looming trade wars, reports B J Sadiq
Nearly five years ago, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump, trudged ceremoniously to a stage decked with flowers and trellises. Giant loudspeakers throbbed with Bollywood music, and party fog curled up mysteriously from the grass. The venue was Sardar Patel Stadium in the Indian state of Gujarat; the world’s biggest cricket stadium, jolting with peals of approval from a crowd that had donned masks of the two leaders, peering out from stands of colossal dimensions.
There were gleams of mirth in the speeches the two leaders delivered, full of mutual admiration and gaiety. “Modi’s an exceptional leader,” Trump gushed, “and a man I am proud to call my true friend.” Moments later, it was Modi’s turn to announce his deep admiration for his guest in his characteristic conceited style and native eloquence: “India-US relationship is no longer just another partnership”, he remarked, “it’s a far greater and closer relationship.”
It was a cheerful occasion, with Modi as usual taking immense delight in telling people about his humble origins, and with many colourful and gaudily dressed Bollywood celebrities in attendance. Both leaders obliquely looked at each other, and then waved at the crowds. Ordinary Indians were upbeat, one woman who had turned up at the rally with her two children burst out in a flush of elation: “To have the US President here, shows just how important India as a country is.” The result of that massive rally, dubbed as “Namaste Trump”, produced ambitious trade agreements, and an expansion in defence and technology ties between these two great countries.
But international politics is plagued with such baiting optics; particularly the politics of South Asia, which is the very throne of pantomime. Four years later, at the time of Trump’s resurrection to a second presidential term, the mood in Washington seems a trifle altered. Trump seems a different man now, hardened by the soreness of an election defeat in 2020; by escaping an assassin’s bullet last year; and by a raft of criminal indictments.
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