When the beef steak lover meets the posterboy of cow vigilantes…

When US President Donald Trump hosts his “true friend”, Narendra Modi, for the first working dinner of a foreign leader at White House on Monday, one can only hope that their worldviews are not as divergent as their eating habits.

Modi has a reputation of being a pure vegetarian, who just made do with a glass of warm water during his last working dinner at White House in September 2014, when Trump's predecessor Barack Obama hosted him.

Modi had then said that he was fasting for Navaratras, as other high-profile guests gorged on avocado salad, halibut (a fish variety) and mango creme brulee.

Trump, on the other hand, loves what many of Modi's supporters, pathologically hate - beef. The mere suspicion of consuming or possessing beef is getting people in India lynched by mobs of self-styled cow vigilantes these days who have reared their heads up in different corners of the country since the 2014 national elections.

Modi's deafening silence on these lynchings, the latest being that of a 15-year-old boy on a Mathura-bound train on Saturday, are being construed as his implicit support to the militant cow protectionists. A government notification last month, currently facing court scrutiny, that called for prohibition of sale of cattle in markets, sparked protests among beef-consuming communities of India as they effectively saw it as a ban on beef.

But Modi, and his supporters, will have no choice but to look the other way when the Indian PM meets President Trump.

Trump and beef

“The World's Greatest Steaks,” says a box of Trump Steaks, a high-end beef product launched by Donald Trump in 2007.

In fact, the US President is known to gorge on steaks, also believed to be his favourite food. Angus beef featured on the three-course lunch menu that followed his swearing-in as the US President in January.

“Trump Steaks” were also served at Trump’s campaign events in the lead-up to the presidential election.

Trump’s fondness for beef is also kept in mind by host countries he visits. During his first overseas visit to Saudi Arabia last month, Trump's hosts are said to have gotten a word that the President just loved steak and ketchup. The food item featured on the dinner menu, along with a traditional Saudi meal.