NEW DELHI: President Donald Trump is a big fan of India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday, seeking to dismiss allegations of rising anti-India rhetoric in the US.
The top diplomat’s remarks came against the backdrop of a swirling controversy after the video of his response to a reporter’s question on Sunday on instances of alleged racism towards Indians in the US went viral.
Though the reporter did not clarify, many saw his question as a reference to the remarks reposted by Trump that referred to India, along with China, as a “hellhole”and appeared to accuse people from the two countries of abusing America’s birthright citizenship.
The US Secretary of State is currently on a four-day trip to India that is aimed at recalibrating the bilateral relations that have faced headwinds since mid-last year.
“The President is a big fan of India, a big fan of Prime Minister Modi. I wouldn’t be here if the President didn’t want me to be here. He wouldn’t have sent someone like Sergio (Gor) to be our ambassador, someone who’s very close to the President,” Rubio said.
The Secretary of State said this when a journalist this morning asked about the controversy and suggested that perhaps the reporter on Sunday was referring to the controversial post against Indians shared by Trump.
Interestingly, the US State Department posted Rubio’s remarks in response to the racism question, along with other comments on ‘X’. But hours later, deleted the question.
The US Secretary of State said he specifically asked the reporter who he was referring to, but he did not respond.
“The bottom line is that in the modern era, you go online, and there are people saying all kinds of crazy stuff. I don’t even know if they’re real people or who they are,” he said.
Rubio indicated that he thought the reporter was referring to comments by people online.
The reporter had asked: “There have been a lot of racist comments coming from the United States against Indians, Indian-Americans. You know this goes against the basic premise of the India-US relationship. What’s your take on that?”
When Rubio asked whom he was referring to, the reporter responded by saying: “We all have seen those comments. We’ve seen endorsement of those comments.”
Rubio remarked that “every country has stupid people” while responding to the question.
He also responded to a question on whether the Indian side voiced any concern about Pakistan during his talks with Jaishankar.
“No, I mean, look, they are concerned about things they’re always concerned about obviously. India is always pointing to the fact that there are armed terrorist groups operating from Pakistani territory that target India — they’re always concerned about it,” he said.
“But as far as the role they (Pakistan) played as a mediator and a facilitator in the Iran situation — that never came up. I don’t think they (India) would complain about that; their issues with Pakistan are different,” he said.
