Trump Jr's map showed India in blue, anti-Republican. Why are Modi men mum?

Map released by Donald Trump Jr on Nov 3, election day

By Haider Abbas*

These may be dying moments of US elections, as ‘war of attrition’ between US president Donald Trump and Joseph Biden is turning out to be, as predicted, a nail biter, with Trump having declared that the ‘transfer of power’ would not be smooth, if he loses. But recent Trump moves suggest what would be the Republican policy towards India in the coming future.
Recently, Trump forced India to sign the Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA) with the aim of countering China. This came amidst a survey, which said that 72% of Indian American would be voting for Trump’s rival, Biden. Biden’s vice-presidential nominee is Kamala Harris, who is of Indian origin, and in case of any eventuality (i.e. if Biden dies or has to step down), then the obvious step would be an Indian making to the presidential post.
Did all all this enrage Trump? It would seem so. Thus, on the election day, November 3, Trump Jr released a world map, with ‘red’ being the nations in support of US and ‘blue’ being opposed to it. Mexico, China and India were shown in ‘blue’. To add more smirk into it, Trump Jr showed Kashmir as an intendment nation of both India and Pakistan.
This leaves a big question to all the lovelorn politics of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was in US campaigning for Trump with ‘Howdy Modi’ in Houston in September 2019, shortly after he annulled the special status of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) under Article 370, followed the ‘Namaste-Trump’ visit of Trump to Modi’s home state, Gujarat, in February 2020, to mobilise Indian voters towards Trump. All this, apparently, has turned into a damp squib!
Intriguingly, when the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) released a 20 Riyal Banknote on October 24, 2020, to celebrate being host to the G20 Summit, it was without Gilgit-Baltistan and Pak-occupied Kashmir (PoK) as part of Pakistan.
But for India it had a different implication: The map showed Kashmir to be an independent country. While Pakistan could not even register a squeamish response, India protested as recently as on October 29, 2020. India made it clear, the banknote was a “distortion” of the Indian map.
Interestingly, the same world was used by Donald Trump Jr – that too on the election day. His tweet which carried the map said, "Okay, finally got around to making my electoral map prediction. #2020Election #VOTE."

The Saudi banknote omits J&K and Ladakh from Indian territory

India, which is facing one of the worst war threats from China and Pakistan, appears to have been left in a quandary on how to respond to the move. Analysts wonder, what exactly has Modi got after all these years of his bonhomie with Trump. The Trump Jr map shows Pakistan in ‘red’, meaning ‘in support of Trump Sr’!

Will Modi or his battery of ministers make India register the same response with the Republicans, as it did with KSA, which decided to annul Kashmir from the India map? There is reason to believe: KSA’s move was dictated by the Republican policy makers, still ruling the country.
Meanwhile, Pakistan has announced it is making Gilgit-Baltistan its fifth province, on the lines suggested by China, as it is China’s gateway to its lifeline project, China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). It wasn’t without reason that, when India had started airing Gilgit-Baltistan weather report on May 9, 2020, there was backlash from China in Ladakh, in which India lost its 20 soldiers on June 15, 2020, as China perceived the Indian move anti-CPEC.
The latest move from Trump Jr throws back the obvious cardinal question: Has Pakistan already “sold-off” its side of Kashmir? And what would now be the Indian policy vis-a-vis Republicans, who seem to be wanting to make Kashmir into a sovereign nation, so that US could fulfill its “dream” of turning it into its military base to thwart China in times to come?
Significantly, al this is happening at a time when India has in the middle already lost its 70-years-old friend, Russia. If Trump loses, Trump Jr’s move will be a constant ‘reminder’ of the Republican position on Kashmir, which perhaps Democrats would find it too hard to put into favour of India.
---
Former State Information Commissioner, media analyst and writes on international politics

Comments

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Was Netaji forced to alter face, die in obscurity in USSR in 1975? Was he so meek?

By Rajiv Shah This should sound almost hilarious. Not only did Subhas Chandra Bose not die in a plane crash in Taipei, nor was he the mysterious Gumnami Baba who reportedly passed away on 16 September 1985 in Ayodhya, but we are now told that he actually died in 1975—date unknown—“in oblivion” somewhere in the former Soviet Union. Which city? Moscow? No one seems to know.

Love letters in a lifelong war: Babusha Kohli’s resistance in verse

By Ravi Ranjan* “War does not determine who is right—only who is left.” Bertrand Russell’s words echo hauntingly in our times, and few contemporary Hindi poets embody this truth as profoundly as Babusha Kohli. Emerging from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, Kohli has carved a unique space in literature by weaving together tenderness, protest, and philosophy across poetry, prose, and cinema. Her work is not merely artistic expression—it is resistance, refuge, and a call for peace.

The golden crop: How turmeric is transforming women's lives in tribal India

By Vikas Meshram* When the lush green fields of turmeric sway in the tribal belt of southern Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Gujarat, it is not merely a spice crop — it is the golden glow of self-reliance. In villages where even basic spices once had to be bought from the market, the very soil today is yielding a prosperity that has transformed the lives of thousands of families. At the heart of this transformation is the initiative of Vaagdhara, which has linked turmeric with livelihoods, nutrition, and village self-governance — gram swaraj.

Authoritarian destruction of the public sphere in Ecuador: Trumpism in action?

By Pilar Troya Fernández The situation in Ecuador under Daniel Noboa's government is one of authoritarianism advancing on several fronts simultaneously to consolidate neoliberalism and total submission to the US international agenda. These are not isolated measures, but rather a coordinated strategy that combines job insecurity, the dismantling of the welfare state, unrestricted access to mining, the continuation of oil exploitation without environmental considerations, the centralization of power through the financial suffocation of local governments, and the systematic criminalization of all forms of opposition and popular organization.

Echoes of Vietnam and Chile: The devastating cost of the I-A Axis in Iran

By Ram Puniyani The recent joint military actions by Israel and the United States against Iran have been devastating. Like all wars, this conflict is brutal to its core, leaving a trail of human suffering in its wake. The stated pretext for this aggression—the brutality of the Ayatollah Khamenei regime and its nuclear ambitions—clashes sharply with the reality of the diplomatic landscape. Iran had expressed a willingness to remain at the negotiating table, signaling a readiness to concede points emerging from dialogue.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Rajiv Shah Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

The price of silence: Why Modi won’t follow Shastri, appeal for sacrifice

By Arundhati Dhuru, Sandeep Pandey* In 1965, as India grappled with war and a crippling food crisis, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri faced a United States that used wheat shipments under the PL-480 agreement as a lever to dictate Indian foreign policy. Shastri’s response remains legendary: he appealed to the nation to skip one meal a day. Millions of middle-class households complied, choosing temporary hunger over the sacrifice of national dignity. Today, India faces a modern equivalent in the energy sector, yet the leadership’s response stands in stark contrast to that era of self-reliance.

False claim? What Venezuela is witnessing is not surrender but a tactical retreat

By Manolo De Los Santos The early morning hours of January 3, 2026, marked an inflection point in Venezuela and Latin America’s centuries-long struggle for self-determination and independence. Operation Absolute Resolve, ordered by the Trump administration, constituted the most brutal and direct military assault on a sovereign state in the region in recent memory. In a shocking operation that left hundreds dead, President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores were illegally kidnapped from Venezuelan soil and transported to the United States, where they now face fabricated charges in a New York federal detention facility. In the two months since this act of war, a torrent of speculation has emerged from so-called experts and pundits across the political spectrum. This has followed three main lines: One . The operation’s success indicated treason at the highest levels of the Bolivarian Revolution. Two . Acting President Delcy Rodríguez and the remaining leadership have abandone...

Search This Blog