Teresa Hanafin writes the daily Fast Forward in the Boston Globe.
She writes today:
Trump heads home from India this morning, leaving behind his usual trail of exaggerations, misinformation, and dodgy answers. Prime Minister Narendra Modiplayed it smart, following the lead of other world leaders who have figured out that over-the-top flattery and ostentatious displays appeal to the man-child, who then will gushingly praise the host who put on the show for him.
Modi has centralized power in his office, reduced the authority of the judiciary, investigated organizations that criticize him (and charged some leaders with sedition), and cut funding for anti-poverty programs, health initiatives, and education.
No wonder that Trump called him “incredible,” “very calm,” “very strong” and “very tough.”
A few items:
Trump: Modi wants religious freedom in India and is working very hard on that.
Truth: Modi is actually working very hard on making life miserable for India’s 200 million Muslims, a move that’s popular with many of the country’s majority Hindus.
He stripped statehood and autonomy from Kashmir, the country’s only Muslim-majority state, arrested some of its leaders, and shut off Internet access. (Trump would like to do that in Massachusetts. Or New York. Or California.)
He pushed citizenship tests in the state of Assam, where the official government lists conveniently left off most Bengali Muslims (whom his home minister calls “termites”). Now he wants all Indians to prove they are Indians, and he’s building huge detention complexes to house those who can’t. And there will be many; it’s pretty difficult to track down a birth certificate when you can’t read. If you even had one to begin with.
Most recently, he got Parliament to enact a law that provides a fast-track path to citizenship for migrants from three countries: Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan. There are two caveats, however: You have to have entered India before 2014, and you have to practice one of six religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Sikhism, Jainism, and Zoroastrianism. Notice something missing? That’s right — Islam.
This has caused massive protests and riots in India. In fact, not far from where Trump was speaking in Delhi, a violent clash between Hindus and Muslims left 11 people dead.
Modi has even had history books rewritten to exclude Muslim leaders, and rarely punishes Hindu mobs who lynch Muslims.
Modi apparently has forgotten — actually, is deliberately ignoring — the expressed intent of founders Mohandas Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru to build an India that is a secular and democratic republic, a country in which citizens are not defined by faith and civil liberties are extended to all.
Trump: “Under Prime Minister Modi, for the first time in history, every village in India now has access to electricity.”
Truth: Um, no. About 99 million people, or 7 percent of India’s population, still live in the dark.
Trump: “We have the greatest economy ever in the history of the United States.”
Truth: We don’t. GDP has been higher many times in the past, the proportion of Americans with a job has been higher in the past, and wages have risen faster in the past.
Same old, same old.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Prez Trump now says 10 million people to welcome him in Ahmedabad
Feb 21, 2020,
US President Donald Trump has made yet another tall claim about the size of the crowd that will welcome him in Ahmedabad, saying Prime Minister Narendra Modi has told him that there will 10 million people to greet him on his arrival for his maiden visit to India.
President Trump and First Lady Melania are scheduled to travel to Ahmedabad, Agra and New Delhi on February 24 and 25.
Speaking to reporters at the Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Tuesday, Trump said that Modi told him that “we’ll have 7 million people between the airport and the event.
On Thursday, Trump upped the crowd size by three million at a ‘Keep America Great’ rally in Colorado.
Read more at:
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/prez-trump-now-says-10-million-people-to-welcome-him-in-ahmedabad/articleshow/74240077.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst“
Wonder how many adderalls he snorted?
People left. Trump is drunk on himself.
This is a different topic, but gives the horrors of what happens when Trump gets his way with immigrants. It is put out by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR).
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“You Will Never See Your Child Again”
The Persistent Psychological Effects of Family Separation
February 25, 2020 Asylum, United States
The Trump administration’s crackdown on asylum seekers has included the brutal intimidation tactics of family separation and family detention. These policies have profound health implications for migrant adults and children and violate basic human rights, including the right to be free from torture and enforced disappearance.
A new Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) investigation, based on psychological evaluations of asylum-seeking parents and children who were separated by the U.S. government in 2018, found pervasive symptoms and behaviors consistent with trauma; most met diagnostic criteria for at least one mental health condition, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, major depressive disorder, or generalized anxiety disorder consistent with, and likely linked to, the trauma of family separation.
PHR evaluated 17 adults and nine children who had been separated under the policy for an average of 60-69 days; all but one child had been reunited at the time of evaluation. The investigation sought to explore two key questions: 1) What traumatic experiences did these asylum seekers report in their home countries, during their journey to the United States, and during and after their apprehension at the border?; and 2) What were the psychological effects associated with the forced separation of children from their parents and other family members after entry into the United States? The rich and intense narratives of our illustrative cohort help shed light on the experiences of separated families…
https://phr.org/our-work/resources/you-will-never-see-your-child-again-the-persistent-psychological-effects-of-family-separation/
Way to go Carol. As usual, well said.
My two cents worth.
Who cares about truth anyway?.
Once, the great minds: searched for
ultimate good, truth, beauty.
Has that ever gone out the window.
It is hard to “Trump” what is going on now.
And a little more than a third of the country doesn’t care. As long as he says the right words about guns, abortion, gays, and god, he’s their guy.
GAGG.
Let me restate that:
Immigration, Guns, Abortion, Gays, and God
I GAGG
Let me be clear about this. I know a lot of very religious people whom I respect enormously. But the fundamentalist nutcases who now have a grip on the Republican Party are straight out of the Middle Ages.
Not to argue too much with a friend, but you are misreading that third of the population. They care a great deal, so much that they will vote. The key here is not that they do not care, it is that they have been taught to fear. These things you list are the things they have been taught to fear.
There are things these folks dislike about Trump. They do not like his womanizing. They do not trust his wealth. They do not like his smart mouth in general. But they hold their nose and vote for him because they have been taught to fear these things.
They vote their fears. The potential democratic voters have been taught to despair. They will only vote when they hope.
and perhaps even a bit of a Luddite phenomenon going on here: many fear what modern days of technology and an endless televised “crossing of lines” is creating, and somehow truly believe that good leadership could bring back the those pre-tech “G-rated” years now mentally attached to the 50s and 60s.
1600 Daily
The White House • February 25, 2020
President Trump is wheels up from historic India visit
The President and First Lady Melania Trump are now en route back to Washington, D.C., after a productive and awe-inspiring trip to India this week.
The two-day schedule was packed with both working meetings and visits to cultural landmarks such as the Taj Mahal. Yesterday, President Trump received a roaring welcome from over 100,000 people at a rally hosted by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“Melania and I have been awed by the majesty of India and the exceptional kindness and generosity of the Indian people,” President Trump said. “We’ll always remember the magnificent welcome the citizens of your home state showed us upon arrival.”
📷 PHOTOS: President Trump and the First Lady in India!
Earlier today, the President spoke to reporters about his successful visit and the growing power of the U.S.–India partnership. A few highlights:
On India: “I admire your country tremendously. I respect your Prime Minister tremendously . . . I think that India is going to be a tremendous player [now and] over the next period of 50 years and 100 years.”
On economic opportunity: “We just had a meeting . . . I thought it was a great meeting with some of the biggest businessmen in the world that come from India. They’re agreeing to invest billions and billions of dollars.”
On trade: “We also talked about tariffs because as you know, India is probably the highest-tariff nation in the world, meaning charging tariffs to outsiders. And I said we have to stop that. We have to stop it.”
On the Middle East: “We don’t have to act as a police force. We can act as a military force to win—not a military force to just take care of things in that very, very difficult part of the world.”
As part of President Trump’s talks with Prime Minister Modi this week, India is set to buy more than $3 billion of advanced American military equipment for its troops. A stronger India will boost U.S. efforts to defeat terrorism and drug trafficking worldwide.
The President also teased progress toward a major new trade deal, which would come on the heels of a recent Phase 1 agreement with China and the NAFTA-replacing USMCA.
“We think we’re at a point where our relationship is so special with India,” President Trump said alongside Prime Minister Modi. “It has never been as good as it is right now.”
President Trump: America received an incredible welcome from the people of India!
Does this mean that Trump now knows where India is? Not long ago, he was telling Modi, in the Whiter House, that “It’s not like you’ve got China on your border.”
This doesn’t sound like Trump made a good impression on people. The least he could have done was learn how to pronounce words correctly. Guess his “wonderful gut” was out of commission throughout the trip. [Remember Trump has stated that his gut is more intelligent than most people’s brains.] I doubt that everyone loves Modi.
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Trump Speaks to Massive Indian Crowd, Mispronounces Almost Everything
TONGUE TWISTER
Jamie Ross
Reporter
Updated Feb. 24, 2020 10:17AM ET /
Published Feb. 24, 2020 5:03AM ET
REUTERS
President Donald Trump addressed a massive public rally early Monday in India, where he showered the country and its prime minister with praise—but repeatedly struggled with his pronunciation. The 100,000-seat stadium in the state of Gujarat was reportedly at capacity by the time Trump arrived—he walked to the stage with Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the sound of the Village People song “Macho Man” rang out over loudspeakers. Trump was cheered as he told the crowd that their country “will always hold a very special place in our hearts,” and said of the PM: “Everybody loves him but I will tell you this, he is very tough.” BBC News India kept a running total of the Indian words Trump managed to mispronounce, including Ahmedabad, the city where he was speaking. He reportedly referred to the Indian philosopher Swami Vivekananda as Swami Vivekamanan, and called the Vedas—ancient Hindu religious texts—“Vestas.” He also mangled the names of India’s biggest cricket stars. The BBC reports some in the crowd began leaving midway through Trump’s speech.
Read it at BBC News
Thank you so much, Teresa, for your insightful write-up. Do you know that most west scholars have no idea what is genocide, and they are spreading lies about India, by writing fake narratives? (Last few days have been bombarded by articles in western media on an ongoing genocide in India) British Raj killed over 10 million in the Indian state of Bengal alone, between 1770 and 1943, and no one ever remembers that genocide. That is a much greater number than the number of Jews who were killed in Nazi Germany. Pakistani Army killed over 3 million and raped over 200,000 in Bangladesh(East Pakistan) in 1971. People haven’t gotten over these genocides even today. Hindu population in Pakistan has shrunk from 24% in 1947 to 3.5% in 1971. It has remained stagnant there. The Muslim population in India was 35 million(9.1%) in 1950 and it stands at 210 million(14.2%) as of today. So could those people who are spreading rumors about India kindly tell us which part of India is witnessing genocide? Most of these people have no clue of the Indian subcontinent’s history. They are spreading lies to sow discontent, in a very peace-loving country. India has always accepted all religions with open arms because Hinduism allows people to chose their own path(it even allows atheism). People should question the intent of all these hate-mongers in the west.