This was long awaited moment that Prime Minister Narendra Modi meeting US President Donald Trump, the build-up to his US tour witnessed Trump referring him as a ‘true friend’. Two different personalities, one inherent billions of dollars from his father, other one was born in a humble family, father as a chaiwala (tea seller). The US President got control of his father Fred Trump’s real estate and construction firm and he renamed it The Trump Organization. On the other hand, our PM Modi helped his father in selling tea in Gujarat’s Vadnagar, while his mother worked as a domestic help to earn a livelihood. Being a millionaire, Donald Trump led an extravagant lifestyle. He has appeared at the Miss USA pageants, which he owned from 1996 to 2015. He has also made appearances in films and TV series. He hosted and co-produced The Apprentice, a reality television series on NBC, from 2004 to 2015. As of 2016, he was listed by Forbes as the 324th richest person in the world, and 156th in the US.
On the other hand, Modi leads a simple life. His 90-year-old mother has been seen travelling in auto-rickshaws. She lives in a simple house in Gujarat’s capital Gandhinagar. Modi’s other relatives too live a modest life and all are doing average to earn their bread; no one is favoured or has prospered, just because he is nation’s most powerful person. He lived like a saint most of the time, giving up everything. Donald Trump has been married three times and has five children. Apart from this, his relationship with women is very much debatable; he lived with money and fairy-tale life. A few days before the US Presidential elections, a 2005 video and audio clipping surfaced in which Donald Trump was heard big-headed about fumbling, kissing and trying to have sex with women. Well, Modi leads the life of a loner. He is single after having left his wife in his teenage years. He does not have any children. He always, lived a bachelor life.
Donald Trump’s political rise has been deferred but unexpected and shrill. He sought presidential nomination in 2000 from the Reform Party. However, he withdrew before voting began. In June 2015, Trump announced his candidacy for president as a Republican. He emerged fast as the front-runner for his party’s nomination. In May 2016, his rivals in the Grand Old Party suspended their campaigns. In July, he was formally nominated for the president’s post at the 2016 Republican National Convention. Exactly opposite, Narendra Modi has worked hard to steadily rise in politics. He worked at the lowest stair of the RSS and slowly became a Pracharak. Then, he was sent to BJP as RSS’ evocative. He rose to first become Gujarat’s Chief Minister in 2001. He was the state’s CM for four terms before becoming India’s PM. They both are different from each other. However, some elements which are matching make them stand in one row. At an apparent level, there are similarities. Both men have portrayed themselves as outsiders to power. Both railed against the political establishment; both use a rhetorical style that critics see as inflammatory; both attract fanatical devotion; both have opposed certain kinds of immigration, both inspire their loyalists to treat the media as enemy. And both have been accused of playing fast and loose with the facts for dramatic effect.
Modi struck a personal chord with Trump during the dinner meets discussing a range of crucial issues.
The excited Indian migrants gathered in Virginia to listen to Modi’s address that voiced confidence about the future of India-US ties under the leadership of Modi and President Donald Trump. The prime minister spoke for nearly 50 minutes at the event in Hindi and explained to the audience the welfare programmes his government has launched in past three years. Modi is an outstanding politician and a businessman. He knows, how to handle other entrepreneurs. Trump is a businessman too. Modi knows, how to make this trip to India’s advantage. Perhaps that is one good quality he has, wherever he goes he just dominates the ambience to great extent and proves that India is no less than any other country. There is a lot of positive energy and enthusiasm about India’s relations with the US. So, we can expect only a positive outcome from the Trump-Modi meeting and for the future of the two countries.
Overcoming trade and investment barriers would calm the concerns of the US leadership, trade associations and businesses. Both leaders are visionaries. Relations between the world’s two largest democracies had warmed under Mr. Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama, as India sought greater foreign investment and trade ties. However, it was not long after Trump’s election that obstacles emerged on issues such as trade and visas for Indians wanting to work in the United States. A proposed overhaul of H-1B visas — used by thousands of Indian software engineers to work in the United States, has caused concern. PM Modi’s core goals for the meeting are to ensure that India is on the US’ radar, and that the new US administration maintains policy continuity with the last one.
Trump’s main concern is job creation in America and improving the living standard of denizens of rust belt. The arms sale to Saudi Arabia; castigation of Iran and tacit support for boycott of Qatar by GCC countries and subsequent sale of weapons to Qatar; withdrawal of security guarantees to NATO allies and his insistence on spending of 2 percentage of GDP by them on defence, are all indications that Trump’s mind is preoccupied with American economy.
Let us all hope, this time our PM comes up with all goodies for Indians living in the US and Indians aspiring to do something in the US.
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