India pours on pageantry with raucous welcome for Donald Trump
- Trump’s visit coincides with heightened US-India trade tensions and volatile protests over controversial citizenship law
- Nevertheless, Trump got a red-carpet welcome from Narendra Modi and a mega rally was held in Ahmedabad
India and the United States have built close political and security ties and Trump’s two-day trip is a sign of their converging interests and a way to counter China’s rise as a superpower, officials say.
Modi embraced Trump as he stepped off Air Force One, along with his wife, Melania.
“We are ready to come to India, we are on our way, we will be meeting everyone in a few hours,” Trump tweeted in the Hindi language before he landed.
Modi tweeted an old Indian saying in response: “The guest is God.”
Trump has plenty of fans in India. They even built a wall for his visit
Folk dancers carrying colourful umbrellas danced alongside the red carpet as drummers, trumpeters and other musicians performed on the airport grounds to welcome Trump and the US delegation.
US concerns that led last year to the suspension of India’s tariff-free access for some US$5.6 billion in exports under the 1970s-era Generalised System of Preferences still remain, US officials say.
But Modi, who has built a personal rapport with Trump, is pulling out the stops for Trump’s visit even though prospects for even a limited trade deal were slim.
The cavalcade’s route as it snaked through the city was thronged by tens of thousands of curious onlookers, keen to catch a glimpse of Trump and Modi.
The duo together garlanded an image of Indian independence hero Mahatma Gandhi after stopping briefly to visit his former home, Sabarmati Ashram.
Trump was feted at a reception in a 110,000-seat cricket stadium in the city. A huge crowd filled the stadium, claimed to be the world’s biggest cricket ground.
The rally was a larger version of the “Howdy Modi” rally that Trump and Modi jointly appeared at in Houston to a jubilant crowd of 50,000 Indian Americans last year, where Trump likened Modi to Elvis Presley for his crowd-pulling power.
His entourage included daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner besides members of his cabinet, including Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.
Trump, who seeks re-election in November, routinely gets the biggest audience of any candidate in the US presidential race, ranging up to 20,000 or so, and he has been grudgingly admiring of Modi’s ability to get a bigger crowd than him.
Many roads were blocked off in Ahmedabad, shops shut and police stationed on rooftops and balconies. Schoolchildren boarded buses bound for the stadium shouting “We love Trump.” Others were carrying Indian flags.
“I have been here since 7am. I don’t know how many I have handed out,” said Durvin Prajapati, a 19-year-old volunteer who was standing on the stadium concourse with a box of two thousand Trump masks. “We like Trump: he is good for business”
I hear it’s going to be a big event. Some people say the biggest event they’ve ever had in India
From Ahmedabad, he headed to Agra for a sunset visit to the iconic Taj Mahal mausoleum, before landing in New Delhi for a summit with Indian officials and business leaders.
The two sides have been arguing over US demands for access to India’s poultry and dairy markets, Indian price controls on medical devices such as stents and stringent local data storage rules that US technology firms say will raise the cost of doing business.
Modi’s government has sought restoration of trade concessions that Trump withdrew in 2019 and greater access to US markets for its pharmaceutical and farm products.
The two countries are expected to announce defence deals including an Indian navy plan to buy helicopters from Lockheed Martin worth $2.6 billion.
Trump’s foreign visits have typically been light on sightseeing, but this time, the president and first lady Melania Trump visited the Taj Mahal. Stories in local media warned of the monkeys that inhabit the landmark pestering tourists for food and, on occasion, menacing both visitors and catapult-carrying security guards.
China ‘threat’ looms large as Namaste Trump meets Howdy Modi
Presidents have often used trips overseas to bolster their electoral prospects. Images of American presidents being feted on the world stage stand in contrast to those of their rivals in the opposing party slogging through diners in early-voting states and clashing in debate.
This trip, in particular, reflects a Trump campaign strategy to showcase him looking presidential during short, carefully managed trips that provide counterprogramming to the Democrats’ primary contest and produce the kinds of visuals his campaign can use in future ads. His aides also believe the visit could help the president woo tens of thousands of Indian-American voters before the November election.
Some of Trump’s past trips have been overshadowed by diplomatic snafus and political gaffes. When Barack Obama was running for president, his reception in Germany in front of a massive crowd was featured prominently in an attack ad casting him as a mere “celebrity”.
Beyond the optics, there are serious issues to address as India faces a slumping economy and ongoing protests over a citizenship law that excludes Muslims.
Trade tensions between the two countries have escalated since the Trump administration imposed tariffs on steel and aluminium from India. India responded with higher penalties on agricultural goods and restrictions on US medical devices. The US retaliated by removing India from a decades-old preferential trade programme. Though trade will be on the agenda, Trump and administration officials are playing down expectations.
India’s marginalised minorities unite against Hindu nationalism
Typically, Trump has not publicly rebuked world leaders for human rights abuses during his overseas trips. But one senior administration official said the US is concerned about the situation and that Trump will tell Modi the world is looking to India to continue to uphold its democratic traditions and respect religious minorities.
Trump is also expected to weigh in on the fate of the disputed territory of Kashmir. The Muslim-majority territory claimed by both Hindu-nationalist led India and Pakistan. Trump has offered to mediate and has encouraged India and Pakistan to work together to resolve their differences.
But there is likely to be little public divide between Trump and Modi, two leaders with a similar love of bravado and adoration. At the “Howdy Modi” event last fall, which incongruously linked the Indian prime minister with Texas’ cowboy culture, the two world leaders took the stage hand in hand at a rock concert-like setting that will be dwarfed by the scene in Ahmedabad
“Get ready to say #NamasteTrump,” tweeted the city, the largest in Modi’s home state of Gujarat, as it geared up to welcome the American president on his maiden India visit as president. It also invited people to join “#theBiggestRoadShowEver.”
Additional reporting by Associated Press
