India yesterday rolled out the red carpet for US President Donald Trump on the second day of a visit high on spectacular optics, but deadly unrest exposed religious tensions that his host is accused of stoking.
The violence in New Delhi on Monday just as Trump arrived began as a standoff between supporters and opponents of a new citizenship law, but degenerated into running battles between Hindus and Muslims, local media reported.
The law, which critics say forms part of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist agenda — which he denies — has sparked weeks of protests and violence, but the fatalities were the first since December last year.
Photo: Reuters
The seven dead in Delhi’s northeastern fringes included a police officer.
More than 150 people were also wounded, police and hospital sources said, as the rioters armed with stones and even guns went on the rampage, setting fire to buildings and vehicles.
The authorities responded with tear gas and smoke grenades, sending in paramilitary security forces, shutting schools and banning the assembly of more than four people in the areas affected. Further rioting was reported yesterday.
The law has raised worries abroad — including in Washington — that Modi wants to remould secular India into a Hindu nation while marginalizing the country’s 200 million Muslims, a claim Modi denies.
A senior US official told reporters that Trump would raise concerns about religious freedom during his lightning visit, calling them “extremely important to this administration.”
Yesterday, Trump and first lady Melania Trump were given a ceremonial welcome with red-coated and turbaned mounted troops and booming cannons.
Shedding their shoes they then laid a wreath and showered petals at the open-air memorial where Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi was cremated before they planted a tree, but then Trump and Modi got down to brass tacks.
However, Trump failed to strike any major trade deal with India at the end of a visit big on photograph opportunities but short on substance.
Speaking after talks in New Delhi with Modi, the US president said only that they had made “tremendous progress” toward a comprehensive agreement and that he was “optimistic we can reach a deal.”
While minor compared to his trade dispute with China, Trump has slapped tariffs on Indian steel and aluminium and suspended duty-free access for certain goods in an effort to cut the US$25 billion US trade deficit with Asia’s third-biggest economy.
Under pressure to deliver ahead of elections in November, he has pressed for greater access to the vast Indian market of 1.3 billion people for US dairy producers, makers of medical goods and for Harley-Davidson motorcycles.
But Modi, who has a lot in common with Trump with his “Make in India” mantra echoing Trump’s “America first” slogan, has responded with higher tariffs on US goods including US$600 million worth of Californian almonds.
Modi, speaking alongside Trump, said only that both sides “have agreed to start negotiating for a big trade deal.”
However, Trump and Modi did announce US$3 billion in defence deals, including for the sale of naval helicopters, proof of their deepening strategic alliance to counter the rise of China in the region.
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