Bobby Ghosh on Pres. Trump’s India Visit and Stance on Islam

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: So, my question was, will the U.S. use its traditional influence to defend religious freedom and pluralism? Let’s just play what President Trump said about this issue.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT TRUMP: We did talk about religious freedom and I will say that the prime minister was incredible on what he told me. He wants people to have religious freedom and very strongly and he said that in India, they have worked very hard to have great and open religious freedom. So, as far as the individual attack, I heard about it, but I didn’t discuss that with him. That’s up to India.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: OK. So, he’s not talking about the clashes, he said there, but on the issue of religious freedom, he took Modi’s word. But it’s also very interesting because, yes, he’s defending religious freedom, but not really talking about this particular law.

BOBBY GHOSH, MEMBER, BLOOMBERG OPINION EDITORIAL BOARD: No, he’s not. He didn’t want to engage with any details, and from the sound of it, he sort of allowed Prime Minister Modi to deliver the Indian talking point without much pushback. Keep in mind, of course, that Donald Trump himself has form on this, his own rhetoric about Muslims and about Islam are actually closer to Modi’s point of view for anything else. So, the two men do see the world and do see Islam anyway and Muslims through a common lens. So, it’s an opportunity missed, previous world leaders, previous prime ministers throughout the 30 odd years that I’ve been doing journalism, have used this opportunity to talk about this seriously. This doesn’t sound like a very serious discussion.