Former Miss India Manasvi Mamgai, who campaigned for US President Donald Trump and even performed at his inaugural welcome celebrations, says he is the only President who has stuck to his words.
"Always, politicians say something else before the elections, and they do something else after their election. Trump is the only President ever... He's doing exactly what he said," Mamgai told IANS on the sidelines of the just concluded India Beach Fashion Week, where she was a showstopper for label Karleo.
Mamgai, who featured in Bollywood film "Action Jackson", is the 'god-daughter' of Shalabh Kumar, an Indian-American Republican leader and the founder of the Republican Hindu Coalition (RHC).
She says during the election campaign, Trump said he wanted to fight against "radical Islamic terrorism and build a wall" to stop illegal immigrants from entering the US, and he's doing just that.
"The stock markets have gone up 10 percent, the taxes are getting reduced, so he's doing exactly what was being said," Mamgai said.
"And now the thing is that not everybody is happy with his success, so people are coming up everyday with new controversies, which half of them are true and half of them are not even true. So I think, he's the only president in the history, who is doing what she said.
"I don't understand why people are upset about it," said the New Delhi born girl, who represented India at the Miss World 2010 pageant.
Last month, Hyderabad-based engineer Srinivas Kuchibhotla was killed in a shooting in a Kansas City bar, an attack that some eyewitnesses said could be racially motivated. Kuchibhotla died at a hospital and his colleague, also an Indian, sustained bullet injuries after a white man opened fire in the crowded suburban bar.
Asked about the racial attacks taking place in the US, Mamgai said: "He (Trump) actually mentioned about the Kansas attacks in his joint address to the Congress... He's sure in his love for India. He has always proclaimed 'I love India' and 'I love Hindus'."
"He spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on number five priority in the world before any other Prime Minister or President."
Trump also came up with an immigration order banning citizens from seven Muslim majority countries including Iran, Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Sudan, Libya and Yemen from from entering the US. In an amended order, Iraq was dropped from the list.
Mamgai says it's fair for Trump to demand legal immigration.
"There is no bill that has been introduced that is against immigration. He wants legal immigration. I don't think anything in the world is wrong with it to want legal immigration. He says, 'America first'. Why should it not be America first?"
"If in my country, somebody else is given preference over me, I'll be pretty pissed off," Mamgai said.
(The writer's trip was on the invitation of India Beach Fashion Week 2017 organisers. Durga Chakravarty can be contacted at durga.c@ians.in.)
--IANS
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