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Prime Minister Narendra Modi departed for home on Monday night after concluding his "successful and substantial" three-day visit to the United States (US), during which he attended the Quad Leaders' meeting and addressed the Summit of the Future at the United Nations General Assembly, but avoided engagements with 2024 US presidential candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.
The agenda of PM Modi's hectic 72-hour trip to the US also included bilateral discussions with outgoing US President Joe Biden, a community reception, and meeting with prominent CEOs, however, according to a Times of India report, he deliberately avoided any involvement in American domestic politics during the visit and steered clear of interactions with Trump and Harris.
A comment from Trump the previous week, suggesting that PM Modi was coming to meet him, had sparked speculation as to whether the Republican candidate would appear in New York City or at the diaspora event at the Nassau Coliseum in Long Island.
However, according to the report, PM Modi's tight schedule left limited time to meet either of the candidates, who themselves were engaged in election campaigning.
The report added that polite inquiries about his schedule from those interested in arranging a meeting might have indeed occurred, and they proved enough for Trump to assume that PM Modi sought an audience with him.
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This would be in keeping with Trump's past behaviour, according to the report. For example, during a 2019 meeting with then Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan in the Oval Office, Trump had claimed that PM Modi had requested him to mediate in the Kashmir dispute. New Delhi had to publicly deny Trump's statement.
However, PM Modi had invited Trump, then the US President, to the "Howdy Modi" rally in Houston in 2019, where a crowd of 50,000 attendees had impressed Trump, who has a known fascination with crowd sizes.
This event was followed by Trump's 2020 visit to India, where he was welcomed with the "Namaste Trump" rally, organised by PM Modi in Ahmedabad, with 100,000 people packed into the newly-constructed stadium named after Modi.
Why did PM Modi avoid meeting Trump and Harris?
The tight schedule might not have been the only reason for PM Modi to miss out on any possible meetings with the candidates.
According to the Times of India report, despite Trump praising PM Modi ahead of his US visit on Friday and calling him a "fantastic" leader, while hinting at a potential meeting, the Indian side might have decided to exercise caution based on past experience with American politics.
For example, the 2019 rally, where PM Modi had appeared to openly endorse Trump's re-election bid by echoing the slogan "Ab ki baar, Trump sarkar", had led to some criticism.
Given that this phrase was coined by Trump's Indian-American supporters, who often see similarities between the two leaders as strong and assertive figures, some American commentators also suggested that PM Modi was backing Trump for a second term in 2020.
After Trump lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden, New Delhi had to reportedly recalibrate its approach to the new Democratic administration in Washington, which included Kamala Harris as Vice-President.
With this past experience in mind, the report said that PM Modi's advisors appeared to have decided to avoid meeting either presidential candidate, with the excuse of "scheduling difficulties" due to everyone's busy agendas.
Trump was, in fact, speaking at a rally in Pennsylvania on Monday night while PM Modi departed for New Delhi. Meanwhile, Harris, balancing her vice-presidential duties with campaign commitments, was in Washington DC, preparing to head to Pennsylvania, the most crucial among battleground states in the US elections.
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