PM Modi heads back to India without handing MAGA supremo a 'trump card'

WASHINGTON: Prime Minister Narendra Modi headed back home to India on Monday night after a hectic 72-hour visit to the US during which he steered clear of domestic American politics, including giving a wide berth to the two 2024 Presidential candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.
Modi's packed schedule, which included bilateral talks with outgoing President Joe Biden, a summit of Quad leaders, an address at the UN Summit of the Future, a community reception, and meeting with high-profile CEOs, left him little time to meet the candidates, both of whom have also been on the road electioneering.
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But a Trump teaser last week that Modi was coming to the US to meet him had triggered speculation about whether the MAGA supremo would turn up in NYC or at the diaspora event at the Nassau Coliseum in Long Island, where Trump himself had held a raucous rally a few days before.
As it turned out, it was just some hot air from the MAGA poohbah, whose bloviating in recent months includes constant bragging about how world leaders respect him and seek him out. Apparently, some polite inquiries about his schedule from someone who desired to bring about a meeting may have been enough to assume Modi wanted a meeting.
Trump is notorious for misreading or distorting conversations with world leaders. In a 2019 Oval Office meeting with then Pakistan PM Imran Khan, he claimed Modi had asked him to be a mediator or arbitrator in Kashmir, a claim New Delhi had to refute publicly.
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Despite the contretemps, or perhaps because of it, the Indian Prime Minister famously invited Trump for a "Howdy Modi" rally in Houston in 2019, impressing him with a 50,000 people desi turnout. That in turn led Trump, who is freakily obsessed with crowd sizes, to begin his 2020 India visit with a "Namaste Trump" rally Modi hosted for him in Ahmedabad, where 100,000 people packed the newly build stadium named after Modi.
While Trump talked up Modi ahead of his US visit on Friday, calling him a "fantastic" leader while holding out the prospect of a meeting, the Indian side evidently chose discretion after copping some criticism for the 2019 rally in which Modi laid it thick on Trump. He echoed the slogan "Ab ki baar, Trump sarkar" -- coined by Trump's Indian-American acolytes who see common virtues in them as strong, assertive leaders -- leading some commentators to conclude he was backing Trump for a second consecutive term in 2020.
As it turned out, Trump lost the election to Joe Biden, and New Delhi had to reset engagement with the incoming Democratic dispensation that included a vice-president of part-Indian origin, whose desi creds are suspect in the eyes of the Indian right wing. In light of that experience, it appears the PM's brains trust chose to skirt around meeting either presidential candidate, with everyone's program busy enough to cite "scheduling difficulties."
Although Indian-Americans have conventionally leaned towards Democrats, more recent surveys indicate that with increasing economic security and well-being, many are embracing the Republican Party. Trump in particular has a vocal Indian-American following from a pro-Modi constituency that hero-worships both.
Trump was in fact speaking at a rally in Pennsylvania on Monday night as Modi emplaned for New Delhi. Harris, who also has to juggle her job as vice-president while campaigning, was in Washington DC before she heads out to Pennsylvania, the most crucial among battleground states.