NEW DELHI, Oct 1: The United States president Donald Trump’s accusations against India to save his own skin in the presidential election debate have provided the Congress a stick to beat the prime minister Narendra Modi with.
Taking a swipe at Modi, the former Union minister P Chidambaram on Thursday wondered if the Prime Minister would hold another “Namaste Trump” event like he held in February, this year, after the US President accused India of hiding the COVID death figures.
Chidambaram tweeted, “Mr Donald Trump clubs India with China and Russia and accused the three countries of hiding the number of Covid deaths. He also accused the three countries for causing the most air pollution. Will Mr Modi hold another ‘Namaste Trump!’ rally to honour his dear friend?”
On Wednesday, during his first presidential debate against his Democratic challenger Joe Biden, the US President said India, China and Russia “did not exactly give a straight count on deaths due to the novel coronavirus.”
“When you talk about numbers, you don’t know how many people died in China. You don’t know the deaths in Russia or in India… they don’t exactly give you a straight count, just so you understand,” Trump said to Biden to save his own skin after his presidential election rival highlighted that the US recorded more than seven million cases and over 200,000 deaths, the highest in any country in the world, to justify his charge of the Trump administration having miserably failed to manage the Covid pandemic. To counter his charge, Trump claimed that the exact death figures were not available from China, Russia and India hinting that the Covid casualty in these countries could be higher than the US.
Massive bonhomie was at display at the “Namaste Trump” event held in Ahmedabad in the last week of February even when the dreaded Coronavirus was knocking at the country’s door and the US already hit by it, with both Modi and Trump praising each other. Trump had also claimed that India held a special place in the hearts of Americans, Trump said, “America loves India, America respects India and America will always be faithful and loyal friends to the Indian people.” He had also announced defence deals between the two countries worth over three billion dollars.
(Manas Dasgupta)