Ivanka’s tryst with India

Why the First Daughter will feel right at home

As Hyderabad gussies up for the Indo-US Global Entrepreneurship Summit next week, there is an added edge to the preparations owing to the presence of Ivanka Trump, who will deliver the keynote address and appear on two panels. Ms Trump is not just any First Daughter; she is a paid-up presidential advisor and she is here as the US President’s official representative to the summit. She may have been booed and hissed on her official trip to Germany, and may have faced a nearly empty auditorium in Japan, but she can be assured of the warmest of welcomes during her maiden visit here. That is not only because Indians are innately hospitable but also because Ms Trump represents a triumphal affirmation of many core values that characterise modern Indian politics and business.

The appointment of a child, and her spouse, in an official capacity in the presidential administration with full security clearance and a coveted West Wing office is unprecedented in post-war US history, and it has duly drawn harsh comment from the hostile liberal press. True, JFK appointed his brother US Attorney General, but Bobby had to go through the wringer of Senate confirmatory hearings, processes that Ms Trump and Jared Kushner, her husband, have avoided