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United States (US) President Donald Trumps whirlwind visit to India is being projected as a roaring success. Prime Minister Narendra Modi accorded a royal welcome to the US President. Trump reciprocated by describing his trip as very very wonderful.

The event was a good concoction of diplomacy and politics. The warmth at the occasion conveyed the growing cordiality between the two governments. As a consequence, India and the US are now comprehensive global strategic partners.

Trump is palpably happy because he has returned home with a defence deal worth $3 billion and an assurance from Modi that Indian armed forces will enhance interoperability with their counterparts in the US. This in effect means that India will procure more military machines from the US that would be connected to US military cloud servers.

India has also been introduced to the Blue Dot network. Joining the network would make India liable to get its infrastructure and development projects certified as per the standards determined by the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC).

With India displaying its willingness to plug and play into US social, political, economic as well as military networks, Trump has returned home satisfied, reassured that India is an able ally that will act as an effective counterpoise to China.

Modi dearly wanted two things from Trump: One, a strong blow against the Western liberals who sanctioned his travel abroad, and two, relief from the fear that the US may not back him for revoking Article 370. Trump has delivered on both counts, but has not obliged Modi by confronting Pakistan directly.

The Indian elite is more than pleased to have bought the MH-60R naval and AH-64E Apache helicopters and has got a promise from Trump that he would add the Haqqani network and Tehrik-i-Taliban in Pakistan to the list of terror groups. All in all, New Delhi is satisfied that Washington no longer ignores it.

The otherwise well-orchestrated diplomatic event was marred by the eruption of violence and mayhem in north-east Delhi. A communal war ravaged near the Yamuna, when Modi and Trump were embracing each other on the banks of the Sabarmati river and learning the lessons of peace at Gandhi Ashram.Oblivious to the rising death toll, Trump and Modi continued to thump each others backs. The diplomatic show went on uninterrupted.

The indifference of the two leaders to the killings is rooted in the right-wing political ideology that they subscribe to. The subversion of democratic institutions, espousal of anti-immigration rhetoric, and Islamophobia are the common values that Modi shares with Trump. Both think that liberalism is responsible for weakening their respective civilisational moorings.

While the two politicians could be expected to extract their pound of flesh from the crisis, it is surprising that the American secret service that was positioned in Delhi one month prior to Trumps arrival never raised any alarm about the deteriorating security situation in Indias capital. American intelligence completely failed to assess the volatile communal situation in Delhi.

The heady mix of ideology and diplomacy had begun in September last year, when Indias ambassador to the US, Harsh Vardhan Shringla (now, foreign secretary), met far-right American ideologue and one-time White House chief strategist Steve Bannon in the Indian embassy. Putting diplomacy aside, Shringla boldly tweeted his picture with Bannon and called him the legendary ideologue and Dharma warrior. Coincidentally, a documentary directed by Errol Morris on Bannons world view is titled American Dharma. Bannon, known for flaunting his racist image, is the leading light of the international far-right movement protecting his fellow travellers political interests.

Trump has aided both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in winning elections; he will also come to Modis rescue when his electoral fortunes begin to plummet. Modi has already done enough to boost Trumps electoral prospects among the Indian Americans. Paradoxically, the champions of nationalism and anti-globalism are in the vanguard of the political globalisation project of the global far-right.

Trumps reticence on Modis attempts to dismantle the citizenship structure in India is no different from his endorsement of Israels new nation-state basic law. Trump seems convinced that Modi is his Netanyahu in South Asia. Much like Zionism, Brahminical Hindutva shares distinct affinity with Trumps supremacism. Trump would be as impressed by Hindutvas treatment of Muslims and the plans to disenfranchise them as he is by the Zionists treatment of the Palestinians.

Trump has imposed a Middle East peace deal in cahoots with Netanyahu. It may not be farfetched to imagine that he may be contemplating a similar one-sided Kashmir plan in concert with Modi; a proposal that may further destabilise the region.

Managing the worst communal conflagration in Delhi since the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, with the US President physically present in Delhi,is the next high point in Modis political career. He is certainly feeling emboldened to tell the liberals that they have no America left to complain against him.

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Strategic Embrace and Global Right-wing Embers - Economic and Political Weekly