Indo - US Relations: Any gains from Modi’s flattery of Trump at the Feb 2025 meeting? | Arun Srivastava

Exactly seventy-eight years ago, on August 15, 1947, India attained freedom from British colonial rule, after decades of protracted struggle, which witnessed thousands of Indians sacrificing their lives, but ironically the protagonist of the rightist politics Narendra Modi, who claims to be the true nationalist, is on the mission to turn India into a colony of USA ruled by his rightist friend Donald Trump.

Putting a curb on illegal migration has been a major issue for Trump, but he is getting ready to fire a new salvo of reducing legal migration, as putting a stop on legal hiring has been a major demand of the MAGA, the group of the militant supporters of Trump. Since they have ensured his victory, Trump cannot dare to go against their wishes. MAGA’s pressure is so intense that Trump has even assured to task the military to deport migrants.

Surprisingly even after being aware of the fact that Trump does not nurse any pious feeling towards India and is always ready to use it to gain his mission, Modi has been yearning to be seen on the right side of Trump. He is so obsessive that he resorted to the worst kind of flattery, which even a fanatic Indian nationalist would abhor. The “Vishwaguru”, Modi imitating Trump’s words that he was saved by God to ’Make America Great Again’ swaggered in the presence of US luminaries that he too follows the track of his friend and is devoted to “Make India Great Again”.

His act of flattery crossed the line of political decency with him saying “If I say in the language of America, developed India means Make India Great Again, that is, MIGA. When the United States and India work together, that is, MAGA plus MIGA, the MEGA partnership for prosperity is formed”. While integrating MAGA with MIGA, Vishwaguru conveniently forgot that MAGA has forced Trump humiliate him by not inviting to the swearing in.

Modi’s eagerness to identify with the interest of Trump is so acute that he failed to make out the real import of Trump’s slogan MAGA. Trump intends to make US great and to accomplish his mission he can go to any extent. One thing is also explicit that he is not under any obligation to make India great. Modi’s adapting MIGA and MAGA manifests highest order of sycophancy. Yet again Trump’s emphasis on harmonizing the balance of trade is purely a means to promote the US trade and business. The current balance of trade hinges in favour of India. Trump intends to reverse the clock.

Any country would abhor the idea of allowing the migrants to dictate its social life and economy. The migrant Indians have been virtually dictating the developments in US. The Americans had started nursing the impression that they were denied their share of job and power as the Indians flooded the job market. They were getting a say in the administration. It is a fact that joblessness amongst the Americans was gradually acquiring a major dimension. MAGA strongly held the view that migrants must be forced out of US so as to create opportunities for the local youths and job seekers. They also accused the migrants of polluting their culture and its ethics. They rallied behind Trump as he promised to articulate their aspirations. In fact in the last election, which Trump lost to Joe Biden, they had played the crucial role and even invaded capitol.

Trump mobilized federal agencies and military resources to locate, detain, and deport millions of undocumented immigrants. For pleasing his MAGA supporters he has ordered for handcuffing and chaining of the migrants before pushing them in the military plane. Trump has even planned to declare a national emergency and use the US military to carry out his plan.

But one development is quite surprising. It is not that illegal Chinese migrants are not in America. In the 2023 fiscal year, more than 24,000 Chinese nationals illegally crossed the U.S. southern border, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. This is a significant increase from the previous 10 years combined, when fewer than 15,000 Chinese migrants crossed the border. Many Chinese migrants take a risky, illegal route to the U.S. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a surge in Chinese nationals entering the United States illegally and seeking asylum.

But Trump is not too keen to deport them. He had even adopted stance towards illegal migrants from smaller countries. Of course Trump has been right in deporting illegal migrants, but he should have adopted humane approach towards them. His treating the migrants as criminals, handcuffing and chaining them, certainly must be deplored. He used military plane which is against the US law which generally prevents the military from being used in domestic law enforcement. But for Trump the Indian migrants amounted to an invasion that needed to be stopped. And to implement the decision, the cost of doing so will not be a deterrent. "It’s not a question of a price tag. It’s not - really, we have no choice," Trump told media long back in November.

The political circle was quite hopeful that Modi would extract a positive assurance from Trump and may even prevail upon him, not to treat the migrants as criminals and review his decision. But he failed. It did not look that Modi had made any headway in ensuring better treatment for the deportees on the journey home. Three US military planes carrying the migrants have landed in Amritsar. Many more are in the queue. All the migrants returned in US military aircrafts handcuffed and with their feet shackled. Making the plane land in Amritsar is undoubtedly pat of the dirty design to malign the Punjabi Sikhs. While the Punjabis constituted only 32 per cent of the migrants, the migrants from Gujarat outnumbered. Landing of the planes in Delhi would have blown out the claim of Gujarati duo that Gujarat was the best administered state.

Modi later emphasised that the return of illegal immigrants is not the end of the story. “There is an ecosystem that thrives on this racket and that promotes and enables this racket and it is the responsibility of both countries to do something about this”. But it is whose responsibility to break this racket. The racket functions and thrives in India, the originating country. Instead of beating the bush, Modi speak the truth and break the operation which had rendered hundreds of the migrants pauper. He was simply trying to pass the buck by saying he would seek the cooperation of the United States in finding out more details about these rackets and, if need be, through institutional cooperation between the law enforcement authorities and intelligence organisations of the two countries.”

Since Modi claims to be Vishwaguru, a person having high quality of wisdom, Modi ought to have realised, that Trump is not the same Trump who during his tryst with him in Ahmedabad in 2018 had described him as his best friend. While the global fraternity had come to notice that Trump in his second term as the president of US is a transformed person and his return to the White House is not merely a continuity instead it manifests the emergence of new kind of dictator who treats him above the US laws. Nevertheless, Modi should have judged his coming back in a more correct manner; it signalled the need to reassess, adapt, and display resilience.

Modi’s response to Trump’s actions simply reinforces the perception by common Indians that Modi is not an astute politician and lacks vision. He simply survives on his oratory which is usually full of lies. Even before his formal scheduled meeting with Trump, his government had already taken many decisions to appease him, which certainly must have been made at his instructions as nothing moves in Delhi without his permission. Modi might have done this to give the impression that he was acting on his own.

But his flattery failed to move his friend to give him some liberty and concessions. Modi cut a sorry figure with Trump virtually refusing to be described as great by him and laying bare his flattery before the international fraternity. Apparently Modi had gone to US to chisel India’s strategical bonding with America, but in reality, he was on a mission to bail out his Gujarati friend Adani in the case filed in a US court and issuance of the warrant of arrest against him. The warrant has put Adani in a precarious situation and his business is incurring huge loss, not only of the financial nature but also of his credibility. It is alleged most of the foreign countries which only six months back were eager to believe Modi’s word and do business with him have retreated.

Nevertheless an action of Trump has also come under hot discussion. In fact the day before Modi arrived in the US, Trump had “paused” the enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), which had been used to launch a bribery investigation against the Adani group. The FCPA prohibits companies that operate in the US from bribing foreign government officials to secure business deals. The pausing of the enforcement obviously implied that Trump did not intend to create further problems for Modi at home. It is not yet clear how and to what extent this would help Adani.

The question to the Prime Minister was, “Have you asked the President to take action on that case”. It obviously pointed to the warrant of arrest against Adani. Modi replied: “Firstly, India is a democratic country and our culture is of vasudhaiva kutumbakam. We consider the whole world to be our family. I consider every Indian my own.” Modi said, looking flustered and gesturing at the reporter said; this was a personal matter. The leaders of two countries do not meet, sit or talk this.”

Rahul Gandhi’s comment is worth taking serious note. He tweeted: “If you ask questions in the country, there is silence. If you ask abroad, it is a personal matter! Even in America, Modi Ji covered up Adani Ji’s corruption! When filling a friend’s pocket is ‘nation building’ for Modiji, then taking bribes and looting the nation’s wealth becomes a ‘personal matter’.” Undeniably, it is shameful. How could Modi term Adani’s action as a personal matter?

Modi should have treaded cautiously. During his first term, Trump imposed tariffs on a range of goods of India. He had even dubbed India as “tariff king”. The removal in 2019 of India from the Generalized System of Preferences, which allowed certain Indian goods to enter the US duty-free, was a significant blow to Indian exporters. In fact even before Modi landed in US, Trump had made his intention known that he would raise tariff issue as US companies were being denied of the opportunity to enter big Indian market. Ironically like an obedient kindergarten pupil, he did not raise his head and looked into the eyes of Trump and say “enough is enough, I am answerable to the people of my country”.

Narendra Modi’s meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump on February 13, 2025, would be remembered forever as doomsday by the investors and the business circle who were watching closely for signals on India consolidating its economy and emerging as a major growth market across the globe with significantly low geopolitical risk.

Trump’s “America First” simply endangered the self-pride of Indians and also severely affected the trade. Modi’s move has already strengthened the belief that India has bowed down to Trump. Bhavik Thakkar, CEO of ABans Wealth & Investment Managers says, "India has already reduced duties on several US exports, which may help mitigate potential tensions over tariffs.” US treated Ihdia as a dumping ground by forcing Modi to purchase obsolete defence equipment, like the F-35 aircraft.

Indian manufacturers are already facing the worst-ever crisis of survival. It is facing challenges, particularly from the Chinese dumping its products. The steel industry is in a bad condition. Some of the steel companies have downed their shutters. They are unable to compete with Chinese products which have flooded the Indian markets. India’s export to China has substantially declined. On the contrary, the Chinese export has multiplied many times. Indian industry is already standing on an uneven pitch. They have to fight to compete with Chinese prices. Modi’s Make in India has failed to become livewire.

India offering trade concessions has failed to appease Trump and as expected he is seeking more concessions. This is simply ridiculous. True enough Trump has exerted psychological pressure on Modi and forced the Indian delegation to agree to his diktats. Just hours before the start of the meeting Trump had announced that US would impose reciprocal tariffs against all nations that use tariff and non-tariff barriers to stem the flow of US goods and services. The US President was blunt. “India is a very hard place to do business because of the tariffs. They have just about the highest tariffs in the world”. This was purely a tactics to bully India.

Indians hold the view that India lowering its charges on US exports just before Modi left for US was a wrong move. He should have waited for the things to take a form. There is a general perception in the political circle that Trump intends to entrust India, especially Modi, to look into the political developments taking place in Bangladesh and China and keep on feeding him with the developments taking place in the region. Apparently it may appear to be a boost in the importance of India in the region, but in reality it would turn the position of India vulnerable. All neighbours would turn hostile and treat India as their enemies.

The two countries already have structured bilateral collaboration in defence for 2025-2035 even then Trump has been pushing India to ink more defence deals. Trump also said the U.S. would soon increase military sales to India by “many millions of dollars,” paving the way to ultimately provide India with the F-35 stealth fighter planes—something the country has long sought. Before Modi’s arrival at the White House, Trump signed an order to increase tariffs to match the tax rates that other countries charge on imports, which affects American trading partners around the world—including India. Modi certainly cut a sorry figure by refusing to agree to his offer. Trump has threatened to hit India with a slew of retaliatory tariffs by April 1 and demanded greater market access for American goods and services and a quick-fire mini-trade agreement by October to resolve issues that have tilted the trade balance against the US.

After a day of the meeting between Modi and Trump, even some senior RSS and BJP leaders nurse the feeling that India has been let down. They nevertheless confide that Modi should have told Trump in clear words that his move to increase tariff was unacceptable and if he persists, India will also resort to similar action. On the contrary the Indian negotiators were in a state of trance with Modi not saying anything. It gave the impression that Indian side was panicked from Trump’s threat. These leaders and analyst do not approve of the desire of Trump to have a level playing field for American goods and services. So far America has been dictating and Trump’s threat to hit India with a slew of retaliatory tariffs by April 1 and demanding greater market access for American goods and services was unwarranted.

About the deportation of the illegal migrants, they endorse the sovereignty of US, but at the same time they nurse the feeling that Trump instead of seeking playing space for his country, should have allowed that space to India. They also hold that Modi should initiate corrective measures at home to end the racket of sending the job seekers to foreign countries using illegal mechanisms. Modi had told Trump “There is an ecosystem that thrives on this racket and that promotes and enables this racket and it is the responsibility of both countries to do something about this”.

In 2022, this number doubled to 63,927. The number of Indian immigrants who crossed the borders into the U.S. peaked in 2023, with 96,917, before dropping to 90,415 in 2024. In just the first three months of the 2025 fiscal year, which started in October 2024, 18,625 Indians had crossed the U.S. borders — close to the number of Indians who had crossed the borders in the entire fiscal year of 2020. Research by the Pew Research Center has suggested that more than 725,000 undocumented Indians were living in the country as of 2022, making them the third-largest group behind Mexicans and Salvadorans.

However, they endure that Modi should have pleaded with Trump to let those migrants who have obtained visa and have been staying there for four to five and contributing to US economy. While he ought to have regularised their stay, he should have issued instruction to his coast guards and security to ensure no more illegal migrants enter US. Snatching the bread of the Indians who had migrated after sending lakhs of rupees was not the proper action. They pointed out that most of these illegal migrants had sold out their entire property, land and house, for paying the racketeers to get entry.

Trump also said the U.S. would soon increase military sales to India by “many millions of dollars,” paving the way to ultimately provide India with the F-35 stealth fighter planes—something the country has long sought. Before Modi’s White House arrival, Trump signed an order to increase tariffs to match the tax rates that other countries charge on imports, which affects American trading partners around the world—including India.

Yet another area has been purchase of oil. When India is already getting cheapest oil from Russia, why should it purchase from US paying an exorbitant price. rump is using India to increase its oil production. Experts point out that the decision to price oil in Russia and the Middle East is better as national oil companies dominate. In the US, it’s the private producers, and Trump can’t instruct them on how to price their crude.

The previous Trump administration had in 2018 exempted Chabahar from US sanctions. India and Iran had in 2015 signed an MoU to facilitate India’s partnership in developing the port. U.S. considers Chabahar as useful to counteract China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The U.S. is trying to weaken and marginalize a Chinese international transportation project that extends to Central Asia, Russia, and European countries through Pakistan while supporting initiatives that start from India and extend through Iran and Central Asia to Europe. India at the same time New Delhi signed the Chabahar agreement, India’s Adani Group invested $1.2 billion in Israel’s Haifa port.