Festive mood for Trump’s India rally
A FESTIVE mood has enveloped Ahmedabad in India’s northwestern state of Gujarat before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting there tomorrow with US president Donald Trump, who he’s promised millions of adoring fans.
The rally in Modi’s home state may help displace his association with deadly anti-muslim riots in 2002 that landed him a US travel ban.
It may also distract Indians, at least temporarily, from a slumping economy and continuing protests over a new citizenship law that excludes Muslims. But beyond the pageantry and symbolism of the visit, experts expect little of substance to be achieved for either side.
“For Modi, Trump’s visit to India offers a useful distraction from the domestic political tumult playing out across the country,” said Micheal Kugelman, deputy director of the Asia Programme at the Us-based Wilson Centre. “I don’t think the visit will have much impact on domestic politics in either country.”
To welcome Trump, who last year likened Modi to Elvis Presley for his crowd-pulling power at a joint rally the two leaders held in Houston, the Gujarat government has spent almost $14 million (R210m) on advertising that show them flanked by the Indian and US flags.
It also scrambled to build a wall to hide a slum along a road that Trump and First Lady Melania Trump will take, caught stray dogs, planted exotic trees and was rushing to finish a cricket stadium in time for the visit.
The buzz has resonated in Ahmedabad, a city of 7.2 million people divided between those who are proud of Modi, and those who angrily remember his term as the state’s chief minister, when at least 1 000 people were killed in the anti-muslim riots.
A big trade deal that both sides had hoped to sign also seems unlikely.
“We’re not treated very well by India,” Trump recently told reporters.
Still, with India’s economy registering its worst slowdown in a decade, expectations of a trade deal remain high in India. |