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US President could be India’s R Day guest: Will our welcome trump the Britons’?

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Yashee
YasheeJul 13, 2018 | 21:03

US President could be India’s R Day guest: Will our welcome trump the Britons’?

Donald Trump’s visit to Britain has been a ballooning up of disasters.

A lesser man than Donald Trump would have been embarrassed. A lesser woman than Theresa May would have had a meltdown. But the US President and the British Prime Minister are made of sterner stuff.

Thus, even as Britons leave no balloon unflown in insulting Trumpand he returns the favour by embarrassing an already beleaguered May, the two leaders are carrying on with the pretence of a bilateral meet, where serious discussions can be had and actual deals struck.

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Tripping her up: Donald Trump managed to embarrass Theresa May right after she hosted a lavish dinner for him. (Photo: Reuters)
Tripping her up: Donald Trump managed to embarrass Theresa May right after she hosted a lavish dinner for him. (Photo: Reuters)

As the trainwreck of the visit progresses, it might soon be India’s turn to host Trump, whom our government is trying to invite for the 2019 Republic Day parade. But, boy, have our former colonial masters left us a difficult act to follow!

Marches and May  

Trump landed in Britain on July 12 with a sanguine “I think they like me a lot in the UK.” “No, we don’t,” responded an overwhelming number of people, brandishing placards, blaring whistles, banging pots and pans.

Friday morning, of course, dawned with the pièce de résistance of the protests taking to the skies: a six-meter blimp of a snarling Baby Trump.

If the demonstrators were going over the top, they were out-overtopped by the US President, who, just after May hosted him at a lavish, black-tie dinner, told The Sun “I actually told Theresa May how to do it [Brexit] but she didn’t agree, she didn’t listen to me. She wanted to go a different route.”

If admitting that he mansplained to a country’s prime minister how to do her own job wasn’t bad enough, Trump then enthusiastically praised former foreign secretary Boris Johnson, who recently resigned because he doesn’t like how May is holding the Brexit negotiations (he has eloquently described it as “like polishing a turd”).

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Trump said: “I have a lot of respect for Boris. He obviously likes me, and says very good things about me… I am just saying I think he would be a great Prime Minister. I think he’s got what it takes.”

No mistaking the message: Anti-Trump protesters thronged London on July 12. (Photo: Reuters)
No mistaking the message: Anti-Trump protesters thronged London on July 12. (Photo: AP)

One of the chief benefits Britain is hoping for from this visit is a trade deal with the US, which it desperately need as its messy exit from the EU shows no signs of clearing up. However, before negotiating with the PM, Trump decided to tell a media outlet the deal wouldn’t happen. “If they do a deal like that, we would be dealing with the European Union instead of dealing with the UK, so it will probably kill the deal.”

Deep disconnect   

Farcical though Trump’s UK visit so far has been, it is far from funny. The US and the UK are one of the most influential nations in the world today, architects and upholders of the post-World War II world order.

The leader of one of these countries is behaving like the balloon the Brits flew – irresponsible, belligerent, plasticky and juvenile. The other leader is hurtling from disaster to disaster.

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But both the Brexit mess and the protests to Trump also underline what is probably the most frightening reality of our times – a hardening of positions among 'we, the people', where the twain can apparently never meet.

Trump won a democratically held election and was convincingly voted to power. Brexit was won on a vote.

Yet, the opposition to both is vocal, loud, impossible to ignore. People on both sides, in the US and the UK, are convinced they are right, and no other version of “right” is possible.   

Such deep contradictions within a society, and the gaping divide between the various camps, foretells very dangerous times ahead.

Havan karenge

The strain of this disconnect is something India too has been feeling, as conflicting ideologies drag us in different directions.

Barack Obama was the chief guest at Modi's first Republic Day as chief minister. Photo: Reuters
The American connection: Barack Obama was the chief guest at Modi's first Republic Day as chief minister. (Photo: Reuters)

If Trump does turn up as the chief guest at the last Republic Day function of PM Modi’s first term, it will be both a full circle — and a dividing line.   

And while Britain has undoubtedly been creative in its response to Trump’s visit, we have firepower of our own, which has been on display even before he became president. The Hindu Sena had held a “havan” to pray for Trump’s victory. Since he came to power, the group has celebrated the birthday of their “beloved Mr Trump” because he is the “saviour of humanity”.

The chief guest at Modi’s first Republic Day Parade was the then-US President Barack Obama, the liberal fantasy come true. It would be a sublime irony if the last is Trump, the Right’s Mr. Right.  

Last updated: July 13, 2018 | 21:03
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