BJP's twin links to Trump

New Delhi: Two individuals, associated in varying degrees with the BJP, may well emerge as conduits to facilitate outreach between the Modi regime and US President-elect Donald Trump. One is Shalabh "Shaili" Kumar, a Chicago-based businessman who founded the Republican Hindu coalition in November 2015 to get America's "nationalist" Indian diaspora to support Trump and eventually turned out to be one of his biggest funders. Image Courtesy: Twitter The other is Mangal Prabhat Lodha, a BJP legislator from Mumbai's Malabar Hill who partners Trump in the latter's real estate business in Maharashtra. Image Courtesy: Twitter Those close to Kumar, a frequent visitor to India, claim the Modi regime has not exactly been friendly with him for reasons related to the BJP's overseas cell. "But now the government will have to get him on its side," said a friend of Kumar. A BJP source did not disagree with the claim. The Mumbai-based Lodha, who is the son of Guman Mal Lodha, a former Gauhati High Court chief justice and a former BJP MP, was reticent when this newspaper tapped his Trump links. "I do not expect to play a go-between between the Centre and Trump because our Prime Minister does not need contacts. I supported Trump but did not campaign for him among US Indians," said Lodha, who congratulated the President-elect on email today. Lodha, who heads an eponymous group, collaborated with the Trump Organisation to construct tony residential complexes in south Mumbai and Pune, bearing the name "Lodha Trump Towers". Kumar, or rather his Indian associates, were not so low-key about his Trump connection. His friend and former Delhi BJP MLA, Vijay Jolly - he used to head the party's overseas wing until Amit Shah took over - termed Kumar a "true Modi supporter, a votary of the Modi style of politics and a true Hindu soul in the US". Jolly assiduously sustains the networks he creates with foreign countries. But BJP sources said Kumar's "close" identification with him, as with another BJP member who has fallen from grace in the Modi-Shah regime, had thwarted Kumar's access to the Prime Minister and his team. However, relations with Kumar "needed to be repaired", a party source said, because a convention of the Republican Hindu coalition that he organised was apparently the only community gathering Trump went to while campaigning. Jolly stressed: "When Trump said, 'We love India' and when he praised Modi, he made a place for himself in the diaspora's heart. Shaili Kumar used his forum to funnel the pro-Trump sentiments of Indians and converted them into votes." However, BJP sources related to the overseas cell looked at more pragmatic reasons to celebrate Trump's election. "It's good primarily because the Republicans will adopt a tough stand against terrorism, which will hit Pakistan; they will not hyphenate India and Pakistan as the Democrats tend to; and because India will be an ally for Trump against China," a source said. But in the run-up to the presidential election, the BJP's overseas cell had kept a "hands-off approach" despite its deep-rooted diaspora relationship. "We have members from the Democrats and the Republicans. But we did not take sides because eventually we need to be on the winner's side," a source said. Among the cell's main concerns was the position Trump would take on intellectual property protectionism and jobs for Indian immigrants in the US. "Along the way, Trump indicated he would be favourable to qualified immigrants and that to us is a positive sign," the source said. (The Telegraph Calcutta, India)