Trump-Modi chemistry again, at Motera

New Delhi: There were no hand-inhand walks at the Motera stadium on Monday, but speeches of US President Donald Trump and PM Narendra Modi were filled with admiration and endorsement of each other’s policies. Trump praised Modi’s incredible rise from a ‘tea-wallah’ to a leader under whom “every village in India had access to electricity.”
Heaping praises on Modi government’s welfare policies, Trump said, “three hundred and twenty million people are right now connected to the internet. The pace of highway construction has more than doubled. Over 70 million more households have access to cooking fuel, 600 m more people have access to basic sanitation and, incredibly, 12 Indian citizens are lifted out of extreme poverty every single minute of every single day.”

Trump’s mention of Pakistan was limited to description of his relationship being “very good” with the country on the task of checking the growth of Islamist terror outfits on the border. Calling Modi a tough negotiator at least twice, Trump told the crowd, “your nation is doing so well. We are very, very proud of India.”

Without explicitly referring to India’s move in Jammu and Kashmir and recent policy decisions such as the Citizenship Amendment Act, Trump said the US was “screening applicants asking for entry” as the threat of terrorism was real, and that every country had the right to secure its border. His endorsement of Modi was so much that even in his message at the visitor’s diary at Sabarmati Ashram, he mentioned “his great friend Modi” but had no mention of Mahatma Gandhi.

In his response, Modi too lavishly praised Trump, recalling his first meeting, when Trump promised friendship and loyalty to India. He also said that efforts Trump had made to improve the condition of America have been applauded by everyone.