Trump completes what Columbus started in 1492

By Ravi Batra

Eminent attorney and Chair, National Advisory Council for South Asian Affairs

 

President Donald J. Trump was in India, bringing America’s bipartisan love-filled hug for 1.3 billion strong P.M. Narendra Modi, that none other than Christopher Columbus applauds loudest. India’s “Tryst with destiny” is finally a full throated bilateral and bipartisan success commensurate to the joinder of the Oldest and Largest democracies.

Before President Trump arrived in India, I wrote “My Wish List for India: Celebrate America, As Columbus did India in 1492” – which this paper has also carried as part of a longer article – on page 8 under headline highlighting Nikki Halley’s comment.  

Then I saw many facets of the actual visit. I celebrated Prime Minister Narendra Modi for selecting Minister Hardeep Singh Puri to be the Minister-in-Waiting for President Trump and FLOTUS. Everyone can tell if the hug is real or fake, and Minister Puri’s in-depth comprehension of America, love of American Exceptionalism, and yet protecting his turban a decade ago by harnessing American due process at his Texas airport security screening – made him Modi’s and India’s diamond needle to get the best music out of the Indian civilization and economy for presidential heart and soul. 

That POTUS comes back home with India agreeing to invest billions here and in job creation is a “red welcome mat” in the United States for India and Indians. That he wants to be India’s security provider, and sold great American helicopters, with cutting edge technology, which will defend Indian sovereignty and do fatal damage to cross-border terrorists is welcome news to all peace loving people. 

That there will be greater collaboration between our Homeland Security and Defense Department with India’s Intel and military, including becoming a unified fighting force through joint military exercises will serve to enhance peace and security in the Indo-Pacific as well as ensure Freedom of Navigation in the South China Sea. 

I felt my chest expand, full of pride, seeing India do everything to honor us and our President – after all, India was proving by deed her love of America. Watching our Flag being waved by everyday Indians on Indian streets was a sight Lord Cornwallis would cry over and General George Washington do somersaults over! You see, history well records, yet invisible to most, that America is the time-bridge between excited Columbus and a delighted India. Indeed, Pandit Nehru’s Tryst with Destiny was lost in the useless Non-Aligned Movement, a graveyard of confusion and indecisiveness. Yet, it is PM Modi and President Trump who have consolidated our respective individual national destinies into one joined by love of Freedoms and human rights. Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg recipe provides the ligaments and tendons of the great indivisible America-India bonds. When over 600 million Indians went to vote last election, that’s democracy at a DNA level, and even Ben Franklin, who was afraid if Americans were attentive enough to keep our Republic the Founders had wrought, is sure that Indians will in India. This, then, is a coming together at every level between United States and India – with an unshakeable love among family. 

While much of my Wish List is realized, I hasten to suggest to India: don’t squeeze us too much, as only a win-win deal wins always. 

I congratulate PM Modi for treating our President with the highest attention and honors. All of us felt the love. 

Proof that POTUS was equally touched is that in his Delhi press conference, he actually curtailed his signature real estate-type of verbiage, and made clear he was going to curtail his words; that he was going to be conservative with his commentary. Indeed, during his press conference, he implored Fox News reporter John Roberts not to ask something crazy as POTUS didn’t want to blow up his long trip to India with his own ad libbing. That level of self-restraint, from the Tweeter-in-Chief, is mind blowing and most welcome. Indeed, just imagine two nations, under law, geopolitically making out, in every position across the globe. Kama Sutra, geopolitically speaking. 

Howdy, Modi! to Namaste Trump! Thank you PM Modi for treating us so well! With full respect and affection between our two great nations, so now watch our enhanced joint-destiny unfold sooner.

Image courtesy of thesatimes |

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