Deadly riots as Trump meets Modi
Leaders to hash out trade, defence deal
NEW DELHI: India rolled out the red carpet yesterday for US President Donald Trump on the second day of a visit high on spectacular optics, but deadly unrest exposed religious tensions that his host is accused of stoking.
The violence in New Delhi on Monday just as Mr Trump arrived began as a standoff between supporters and opponents of a new citizenship law but degenerated into running battles between Hindus and Muslims, local media reported.
The law, which critics say forms part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist agenda — which he denies — has sparked weeks of protests and violence but the fatalities were the first since December.
The five dead in Delhi’s northeastern fringes included a police officer. More than 90 people were also wounded, police and hospital sources said, as the rioters armed with stones and even guns went on the rampage, setting fire to buildings and vehicles.
The authorities responded with tear gas and smoke grenades, sending in paramilitary security forces, shutting schools and banning the assembly of more than four people in the areas affected. Further rioting was reported yesterday.
The law has raised worries abroad — including in Washington — that Mr Modi wants to remould secular India into a Hindu nation while marginalising the country’s 200 million Muslims, a claim Mr Modi denies.
A senior US official told reporters that Mr Trump would raise concerns about religious freedom during his lightning visit, calling them “extremely important to this administration”.
Arriving on Monday Mr Trump hailed India and its “tremendously successful” but “very, very tough” Mr Modi at a rowdy rally of 100,000 at the world’s largest cricket stadium in Mr Modi’s home state Gujarat.
Mr Trump — with an eye on elections in November — paid tribute to the four-million-strong Indian-American diaspora as “truly spectacular people”.
Yesterday, they were given a ceremonial welcome with red-coated and turbaned mounted troops, booming cannons and the “Stars and Stripes”.
Shedding their shoes they then laid a wreath and showered petals at the open-air memorial where independence hero Mahatma Gandhi was cremated before they planted a tree.
Behind the bonhomie, a comprehensive trade deal between the world’s biggest economy and the country projected soon to be its most populous looks remote.
While small fry compared to his trade war with China, Mr Trump has imposed tariffs on Indian steel and aluminium and suspended duty-free access for certain goods.
Mr Modi, whose “Make in India” mantra echoes Mr Trump’s “America First” slogan, has responded with higher tariffs on certain US goods like US$600 million (19.05 billion baht ) worth of Californian almonds.
Away from trade, Mr Trump and Mr Modi will reportedly sign $3 billion worth of defence deals including for navy helicopters, and discuss a $1.9-billion missile defence shield.
India may also agree to buy five nuclear reactors, the fruit of a landmark but contentious atomic deal signed in the 2000s.