PM Modi’s visit to Washington sends out mixed signals

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk is having a ball and how! Just the day before, he was in the White House Oval Office answering questions from the press — with his young son perched on his shoulder for some time.

US President Donald Trump seemed bored and paid little attention to the boy — or 'brat' as Americans would call him — even when the child picked his nose and cleaned his finger on the Presidential desk. The boy is then seen saying something to the US President but Trump does not even smile. Unconfirmed reports claimed that the little boy had apparently told the President of the United States that he should go away and that he would like to ‘shush’ him.

The next day, when Musk called on the Indian prime minister, he was accompanied by his three children and two ladies, said to be his girlfriend and the children’s nanny. On the other side sat Indian foreign minister S. Jaishankar, national security advisor Ajit Kumar Doval, foreign secretary Vikram Misri and several other officials, looking nonplussed.

It is not clear whether it was a serious business meeting, but what was the signal that Musk — who wants to enter the Indian market with Starlink satellite communication and Tesla electric cars — sent out?

The casual treatment made the Indian delegation look foolish. Whether there was a deliberate design to humiliate the Indian PM is not clear, but the photos shared by the PM himself are far from edifying. One of the photographs seemed to suggest that the PM was handing out gifts to the children. It was so embarrassing that the PMO (prime minister's office) probably decided to not post them on social media from the 'official' handle, as it were.

Worse was to follow. Even before meeting PM Modi, President Trump declared another hike in tariffs on exports to the US, and spoke of reciprocal tariff. He singled out India as one of the countries which imposes high tariff barriers on imports and declared bluntly that those days are over. From now on, it would be reciprocal tariff, he asserted — tit for tat — with no room for negotiation.

India, of course, had already reacted in anticipation and lowered tariffs on US imports, with the top 30 imports into India from the US proposed to be taxed at less than 7.5 per cent in the Union Budget presented on 1 February.

But that did not deter the US President from humiliating his guest. With PM Modi seated next to him, Trump told journalists, “…India traditionally is just about the highest tariff country, they charge more tariffs than any other country. Whatever they charge us, we are charging them...traditionally, India is right at the top of the pack pretty much. There are a couple of smaller countries that are actually more but India charges tremendous tariffs. I remember when Harley Davidson couldn't sell their motorbikes in India because of the fact that in India... the tax was so high, the tariff was so high…”

The US President also made much of his administration’s decision to extradite ‘one of the plotters’ of the 26/11 attacks on Mumbai in 2008 to face justice in India. Tahawwur Hussain Rana, a Canadian citizen of Pakistani origin who resided in the US, and David Coleman Headley, a US citizen, were both accused of being part of the conspiracy to attack Mumbai in November 2008.

Both were arrested by US law enforcement agencies in 2009 after India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) registered a case on 11 November 2009 at New Delhi's NIA police station under sections 121A of the IPC, section 18 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and section 6(2) of the SAARC Convention (Suppression of Terrorism) Act against them and others.

Headley alias Daood Gilani, a resident of Chicago, Illinois and Rana, also primarily residing in Chicago, were accused of entering into a criminal conspiracy with members of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Harkat-ul Jihadi Islami (HUJI), both based in Pakistan and declared as terrorist organisations by the government of India under the UAPA, for committing terrorist acts in New Delhi and other places in India.

Whatever intelligence they had was presumably shared with both US and Indian agencies; and Rana’s extradition 16 years after the event and his arrest is unlikely to make much difference to his case. It is, however, telling that neither the Indian side nor the US demanded the extradition of Headley, said to have been a double agent working for US intelligence agencies.

And as if all this was not enough, the American side leaked to the media that the next lot of illegal immigrants to the US from India were being sent back this week. While no mention was made of details, it appears likely that a US military plane will again be used, and once again is likely to land in Amritsar over the weekend. The timing of the deportation makes it look like a deliberate attempt to insult and humiliate the Indian PM.

For the record, President Trump did gift PM Modi a coffee table book and write, 'Mr Prime Minister, you are GREAT' (capitalisation by Trump).