Howdy Trump? Betrayal?

When Donald Trump won his second term as the President of the United States, there were havans performed in various parts of India, particularly by the followers of the Sangh Parivar, who perhaps believed that his return as the head of the US government would be in the overall interests of the 140 crore Indians. A belief which was both misplaced and premature.

- PANKAJ VOHRA

Their over enthusiasm was rooted in their conviction that Trump and the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi shared a unique chemistry which would be to the benefit of both the nations. While doing so, they forgot that for Trump or any other person in that position, the interests of his or her own country always come first, and in this case, the US President is using his position to bully the world, including India to ensure that they do not deviate from his diktat.

In his eagerness to show Russia its place and to pressurize New Delhi into accepting his trade deals and offers, he has declared that an additional 25% tariff was going to be imposed on India, much more than most countries. It is a totally insane decision in the face of it, and an attempt to browbeat the world's largest democracy. The least, it is pushing Indians away from the US, which in the past, has preferred to side with Pakistan and nations opposed to ours.

It is also a lesson for those who organized the mammoth "Howdy Modi" Houston event in September, 2019, where the Indian PM was felicitated in the presence of Trump, and its latent objective was to influence people of Indian origin to support the Republicans in that election. It was a gamble that failed since Trump ended up on the losing side, and Joe Biden, the victor, never ever took kindly to New Delhi's "unnecessary interference" in the internal affairs of another country.