US President Donald Trump is understood to have declined Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s invitation to be chief guest at next year’s Republic Day Parade, an invite that appears to have gone out directly to the White House without using the usual diplomatic channels.

There was never any official confirmation from either the external affairs ministry or the US embassy in New Delhi about the invitation. Nor was there any official word on Sunday from the two sides on Trump’s response to the invite, but sources confirmed that he would not be coming.

The sources said this was communicated to foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale when he visited Washington in early August to prepare for the twice-postponed Two-plus-Two dialogue at the defence and foreign ministers’ level in India a month later.

In July, media reports had said that Modi had invited Trump in April for the 2019 Republic Day, which will be this government’s last.

In August, before Gokhale’s trip, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders had said in reply to a question on the Republic Day invite: “I know that the invitation has been extended, but I don’t believe a final decision has been made.”

The annual State of the Union address is being cited as a reason for Donald Trump not being able to make it. AP

In the three months since the news broke about the invite, the foreign ministry has remained tight-lipped, lending credence to speculation that the date-specific invitation was one of what former junior external affairs minister Shashi Tharoor has described as Modi’s “on the hoof” moves in his just-released book The Paradoxical Prime Minister.

Trump is the second US President to be invited to the Republic Day parade under this government’s watch. In 2015 — Modi’s first Republic Day as Prime Minister — Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama was the chief guest.

Another POTUS at Vijay Chowk is the kind of high-on-optics event Modi would have liked to embellish his tenure with as the country shifts into election mode.

While the annual State of the Union address is being cited as a reason for Trump not being able to make it, the White House would also have taken into account India’s upcoming elections before deciding on engaging with someone who by then would be technically in the “lame duck” phase of his premiership.