Pomp and pageantry, but what did Trump's India trip achieve?

THE showpiece of US President Donald Trump's visit to India was the spectacle of a mega political rally that was aimed more at influencing the four million-strong Indian-American community in America to vote for him, and less about crucial issues of an omnibus trade deal that has been postponed.

The Indian government played to Mr Trump's weakness for publicity by offering him a pulpit before an Indian audience of 110,000 people at the world's largest cricket stadium in Motera, Ahmedabad, enabling him to indirectly appeal to Indian-American voters - watching the event on TV - to vote for him in the presidential election in November.

For Mr Trump, the Indian vote is important because he is not a preferred choice of Indians in America, who form 1.3 per cent of the total US population, according to the American Community Survey 2017 and two poll surveys conducted among Indian-Americans during the general election of 2016.