India Set to Stage an Epic Show, With Trump as the Star

I am in Mumbai. Not just Ahmedabad - where POTUS will land - even here, kids are participating in painting portraits of the First Couple. As to the crowd size. It's more a confusion on how Indians say numbers. A 100,000 is written as 1,00,000 (one lakh). It has been reported that the prime minister confused lakhs with millions over the phone. But let's be clear - even for domestic political events - rank and file are required to produce enthusiastic crowds. Heck, recently, a local politician refused to leave his vehicle when he saw meagre crowds. As to sprucing up - again - Indian functionaries will do for their own politicians. No Indian thinks this is out of the ordinary. POTUS will be here for just 36 hours. I have been to all places he is going except this new stadium. For his age, if he weathers this - he is in excellent shape. As to a spectacle - there is an apt Indian word - tamasha - which is what most Indians are calling it. Indeed, not much will come out of this trip. But, Indians are boasting that POTUS is coming only to India - and no other stop which has been typically the case in the past. This fact alone is considered a high honor. Indians love real estate - and to them, POTUS represents the ultimate since many of India's real estate tycoons have turned out to be, well, crooks. As a Republican and knowing many American Indians, vote Republican - dream on. It's a great mystery why they vote the way they do.

Setting a stage for a US president like Donald John Trump (DJT), the 45th president of USA to visit India and return safely home to continue his campaign for reelection for a 2nd term, certainly is an epic task. Only a handful of US presidents have visited India in their 1st term. Some presidents like Nixon not only never visited India but hated his own Ambassador sent to India who would defend Indian positions primarily on the refugees from E. Pakistan before the formation of BanglaDesh. He famously asked a US ambassador to India, what is it with you guys falling in love with India.? DJT has a higher approval rating in India than in the USA. The world's largest democracy, India and the world's greatest democracy, USA have been building strategic partnership throughout this century and the partnership has reached new heights. DJT has come a long way from 2016 when he was campaigning to be president and critical of China and India on their respective trading practices. Later in his campaign he fell in love with the Indo-US community at a rally in NJ and later he developed a cordial working relation with PM Narendra Modi that culminated in the Howdy Modi rally in Houston, TX. Modi will certainly put on a dazzling show for his friend DJT which will start with a signature awkward Modi hug when he will personally receive DJT in Delhi. Sitting on the bench alongside DJT at Gandhi's ashram will be an epic image to remember as also of DJT with Melania in front of the Taj Mahal.

Birds of same feathers flock together. Common traits in both: megalomania, grandiose ideas of themselves, autocrats, hypocrites, no value for human lives, brazen falsehood to promote themselves and so on

The adulation India typically shows US presidents is likely to play well to Trump’s ego, while Modi, grappling with a huge backlash against his BJP government’s new citizenship law, will hope to bolster his domestic image. Tanvi Madan, the director of the India Project at the Brookings Institution think tank, said: “In some ways, American presidents go to India to feel loved.”

Glad to hear T is leaving our country.

A tailor made dog & pony sideshow. If he likes the circus atmosphere there so much why not just stay there?

Ha! "Trump got his wall and the Indians paid for it".

Germophobe Trump in India....

Mr. Trump will be quivering with joy at the prospect of his rally in the World's Biggest Soccer Stadium......Bigger than, bigger than....even Nuremberg....

From my reading, Indians of British India wholeheartedly supported the British and American war effort during the First World War hoping that British India will be rewarded with Dominion status similar to that of Canada and Australia. But it didn't happen. Indians felt cheated. During the Second World War, Indians of British India divided themselves. Muslims under Jinnah's leadership once again joined the Allied, but the Hindus and Muslim followers under Mahatma Gandhi boycotted their war effort. Not only that, Mahatma Gandhi wanted immediate Indian Independence in the middle of the war, and he offered to lead a peach mission to Germany and Japan while free India's Parliament will make a decision to join war or not. Contribution of British India's Muslims in world wars was not lost in the minds of victors of Second World War. Pakistan was created telling Gandhi that partition is the price of freedom. And then, while planning US Presidential visits to Indian Subcontinent, Eisenhower, Johnson, Nixon, Clinton, and Jr. Bush bundled visits to Pakistan and Bangladesh with that of India. Presidents Carter and Obama uncoupled that tradition. President Trump is following suit by not including Pakistan and Bangladesh in this trip. He has no current plans to visit those countries. I think India is overjoyed by this decision and it will openly reflect on how India receives Trump and his family this week.

A fake parade for an illegitimate President. I think will take a pass on this epic show. I hope it does not rain on the parade.

Since the time that India was the Crown Jewel in the British Empire, India has been great at staging the most over-the-top spectacles, bedazzling each and every visitor to them and impressed each honoree of them. Those that have been to India a few times such as myself, however, know that whatever extravagance is only display is only made of the thinnest veneer possible. The country is and has been drowning in poverty, economic miracles notwithstanding. New airports are made which lead, at the very border of the facility, to continued dirt roads snarled in monstrous traffic with old-style taxi bicycles intermingling with cows and dust. Drinking tap water is asking for a trip to the emergency room (or worse). Not one mention of helping or alleviating the misery of the hundreds of millions of Indians will be mentioned during this upcoming event, meant to paper over reality in exchange for fantasy. Proof that the more things seem to change, the more they remain the same.

There is a real lesson for the 2020 election in the US. Modi in his second term has turned far more dictatorial than in his first term. He has unleashed the most extreme version of his Hindu nationalist agenda. If Trump gets elected to a second term, expect the same from him. He'll feel completely unrestrained and will follow an extreme agenda - so minorities, foreigners, women, liberals had better watch out. Modi has individually targeted opponents in the media, bureaucracy, judiciary and activists and imposed state backed retribution on all of them. Be very wary.

let us compare two phrase , 'Howdy Modi' and 'Namaste Trump' from socio-economic point of views. Howdy Trump's objective was to entice Indian-American voters for Trump. Namaste Trump's objective was to build the relationship for Modi's CAA setback as perceived in the western world. Howdy Trump's objective is to gain his personal real estate business interests in India for his family empire and of course, translating some votes though minimum. USA tried to sell more turkey (meat that is no, & no) to India before the trip. if small thing like selling turkey is American priority USA may be misguided. Of course, Kashmir is Indian's internal issue. Pakistan issue is of Modi's top priority. USA should be interested to boost Indian moral against Pakistan. Issue related to Afghanistan and terrorism should be mutually agreed for better good. Pakistan should get a strong message to Pakistan whatever these two leaders discuss to agree.

Namaste does not translate into hello. It is a sign of respect, indicating I honor the God in you as the same God in me.

Let’s hope that his ego gets such a stoking that he decides to never come back.

“Popular in India”. Oh yes. Who doesn’t like a circus in someone else’s backyard?

Great. Now he'll tell everyone he's a Bollywood star ...

Trump should know that they are two new cases of Covid19 in a major city in India. It is is unclear how they got it. The wall that they just built will not stop that virus. Now imagine 100,000 people in stadium!

Would someone please tell Trump it is not appropriate to eat three or four beef burgers a day in India?

Trump and Gandhi! So sad.

Dear India: Keep him! We get you, keep him!! America

Me to Modi - no worries about security OK? Secret Service will only complicate things. (Cme on.. do I have to write "hint hint"?)

Anybody who spends any amount of time in India knows they don't eat much turkey there!

Inaugurating the world's biggest cricket stadium by racists (from both sides) in a country riddled with poverty, hunger, environmental pollution, chocked traffic, squalid sanitary conditions in urban cities, corruption and cronyism across all levels of society, and a struggling economy is the biggest joke of 2020.

Remember that (like everything else) Trump is so uninformed about India (and China) that he said _to Modi_ that India does not have a border with China, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/its-not-like-youve-got-china-on-your-border-trump-geography-error-stunned-indian-prime-minister So clearly he is interested In nothing of substance for this journey ---just getting videotaped being cheered to use in re-election commercials

Trump and Modi have two things in common. They dislike Muslims and like to build walls.

Oh my, not only Americans have been conned. False prophets. “...Hetal Amin, a fervent Modi supporter who runs a women’s organization, is bringing together 1,000 women to line a segment of the route from the airport. She said that officials were providing food, transport, passes and flags — but no money. She said that when she sees pictures of Mr. Trump and Mr. Modi standing together, which are now everywhere in Ahmedabad, she sees “two men that God has sent to bring world peace..”

Trump and Modi deserve each other. Trump should just stay in India.

So disgraceful. They are putting up walls to hide the slums where the poor people live. People of India if they can’t really look at the slums, why do you think they will help the people living in the slums? Don’t treat them like god. They are the devil in disguise. What a shame.

"Welcome to the land of Mahatma Gandhi" Yeah. I could see where Gandhi and Trump would just be best of pals. /s I'll bet dollars to donuts that if someone asks him about Gandhi he'll probably reply along the lines of 'He used hunger strikes to help achieve peace. I like people who don't do that.'

False smiles - false promises - and (get this) "a new WALL going up in front of a slum ...". Dog-gone, sounds like old times, doesn't it ? I had thought better of Modi, when he was first elected. While Trump is a hopeless disgrace, Modi, over time, has failed to be a true Leader of a very diverse Nation. Another Dog & Pony Show won't change anything - except maybe the street sweepers get a little overtime pay.

It makes to very happy to see such great leaders getting together. Hopefully a free trade deal will be struck.

Its amazing how both Trump and Modi are kindred spirits in that they find no money for useful infrastructure but can find billions in vanity projects designed only to stroke their egos. Forget crumbling bridges and roads, we must have a wall. Forget traffic-clogged roads and lack of drinking water, we must have a cricket stadium.

The India of Modi is headed for disaster as he promotes the religious base of Hinduism. This country in ungovernable as time will tell. India could be on the cusp of major civil unrest which will last for years and undo whatever progress India has made in the past decades. The future of India lies not with America but with other countries in Asia and Europe. India must do something about their Co2 contributions and begin to reign in coal and fossil fuels or become the most flagrant country polluting the earth. Modi is only interested in promoting Hinduism and has no regard for other religions. His actions in Kashmir region are lamentable and will have repercussions in the near future. As strife in India escalates, Modi will find himself alone with his self-made problems. The rest of the world must not be involved in Indian domestic problems.

The article notes that U.S pressured Indians to import more American Turkeys. I had to chuckle.

If the authors think that Trump is popular in India, they must be talking to very few sources. As for crowds, getting a few hundred thousand people is not particularly significant. Only crowds of millions gets attention in Delhi. Let's not exaggerate the importance of the US to India, which is a good market for Europe, Russia and China and is on good terms with them, much better in fact than with the US.

“There are more questions in the last six months about India’s commitment to democracy,” said Bruce Riedel, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution... But, he added, “The good news for India is that the last person in the world likely to raise any of these issues is Donald Trump.” Good news for India? That’s like saying it’s good news for the United States that Modi is packing the venue with people trusted to cheer Trump on. None of this is good news for India, and none of this is good news for the US. It’s only good for Modi and Trump.

Trump’s welcome to India by Modi is just to show the world that all is okay in the country at a time when large number of Indians are on the road against a controversial law regarding citizenship.

Okay I already commented once but I have to add, seeing that sign with Modi and Trump grinning next to the words “Welcome to the Land of Mahatma Gandhi” makes me absolutely sick to my stomach. Modi should be legally barred from invoking Gandhi’s name in any context, unless it’s to say “I am ashamed to have done to my country the opposite of what Mahatma Gandhi fought and died for.” Trump, on the other hand, might provide some entertainment value if forced to speak about Gandhi. I expect something along the lines of “Lots of people say Gandhi is a great man, I hear he’s doing lots of really great things.”

The lengths society goes through to stroke men's ego rarely seems to surprise me these days.

Trump in India? Counting down to hearing some ridiculous culturally incompetent commentary. Hope none of the late night hosts are on vacation next week.

Always reassuring that our President can be bought with a stroke to his ego.

Is this the same Narendra Modi who was appalled that Trump didn't know India shared a border with China? Why would he fete someone he considers an ignoramus?