Travelling With The Prima Donna

- Pranay Sharma

THE ingenuity shown by some to rechristen a nondescript Hary­ana village after Donald Trump on the eve of Prime Minister Nar­endra Modi’s meeting with the American President did not go far. Despite media coverage, Marora did not change to ‘Trump village’. Attempts by activists to raise funds to build toilets there have also come a cropper. Authorities have asked them to remove all banners of the US President and move on, as Marora has already been declared an ‘Open Defecation Free’ village.

This interesting episode would perhaps figure as a tiny sidebar on the larger story that evolved in Washington DC on Monday, after the closely watched ModiTrump meeting. Its likely implications had already been drawing expert comments throughout South Asia, but how solemn points in the statement play out in the cut-and-thrust of the real world of foreign policy and action thereon is a matter of speculation still.

In terms of optics and as far as crossing the first hurdle goes, Trump and Modi’s first face-to-face meeting went off very well. The Indian establishment and the large, steadily burgeoning band of pro-American supporters in India are crowing over the outcome. However, a sceptic commented, “We must have kept the bar really low to be so happy when many important issues from India’s point of view were hardly mentioned.”