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Business News/ News / India/  Trump-Biden debate: India references not very complimentary
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Trump-Biden debate: India references not very complimentary

When Biden tried to corner Trump on the US administration’s response towards the covid-19 pandemic and US emerging as the worst-affected country in the world, Trump questioned the credibility of India's statistics on covid-19 deaths

India came up in the debate at least twice. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP) (AFP)Premium
India came up in the debate at least twice. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP) (AFP)

NEW DELHI : The Indian-American community may be a much-courted ethnic group by both incumbent president Donald Trump and Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden ahead of the 3 November polls in the US. But in the first debate between Trump and Biden overnight Wednesday, the references to India were not very complimentary.

India came up in the debate at least twice -- once in the context of the covid-19 pandemic and the second in the context of climate change.

When Biden tried to corner Trump on the US administration’s response towards the covid-19 pandemic and US emerging as the worst-affected country in the world, Trump questioned the credibility of India's statistics on covid-19 deaths.

"When you talk about numbers you don't know how many people died in China, you don't know how many people died in Russia, you don't know how many people died in India," Trump said at the debate in Cleveland.

"They don't exactly give you a straight count," Trump said putting the three countries in the same bracket. The pandemic has so far claimed over one million lives across the world with US suffering the most number of deaths i.e. 200,000 besides seven million infections. India officially has more than 6.1 million coronavirus cases, second only to the US.

Trump added that "millions" could have died in the US without his intervention and again blamed the pandemic on China, which initially suppressed news of the disease when it emerged late last year.

The second reference to India was in the context of the environment with Trump saying, “China sends up real dirt into the air. Russia does. India does."

Analysts said it is not surprising that Russia and China should receive comments from US leaders, the negative references to India seemed out of place. But Trump had berated India publicly in the past on trade issues, mainly imposing high taxes on US goods.

Trump who visited India earlier this year has used clips of his India visit in his re-election campaign videos. The clips showcase his welcome at the Motera stadium in Ahmedabad during his 24-25 February visit and his joint rally with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The India clips in Trump’s campaign video also show Trump joining Modi at the Houston “Howdy Modi" event in September last year and both were seen as reminders to Indian Americans of the close rapport between the two leaders. The inclusion of the India clips were seen as a bid to attract Indian American votes after Biden named California senator Kamala Harris – of Jamaican and Indian origin – as his vice presidential pick for the November polls. Traditionally, Indian Americans numbering 2-3 million have been seen as leaning towards the Democrats.

Former US president Barack Obama had a number of Indian Americans in his administration, including Nisha Biswal, the former Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia. Trump too has some members of the Indian American community in key posts. Diplomat Manisha Singh was named US envoy to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in May.

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Published: 30 Sep 2020, 12:50 PM IST
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