This weekend, we’ll be seeing Trump’s maiden visit to India. Five years ago US president visited us that is Barack Obama – although that visit took a very different approach if we’re talking business. Obama visited India and focussed mainly on climate change and pollution management agreements, Trump’s is focused largely on trade deals, although he seems to have backpedaled on those this Wednesday.
With several parallels between the leaders of the world’s two largest democracies, and it looks like Modi’s set his work around the clock to make Trump’s visit as perfect as possible.
Ahmedabad’s Longest Roadshow
On 24th February there is a big roadshow in Ahmedabad, Mayor Bijal Patel says the 22km route roadshow will play host to more than ‘50,000 people’. The route itself was set by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation and starts with historic beginnings, from the doors of Mahatma Gandhi’s Sabarmati Ashram.
“From the Sabarmati Ashram, both the leaders would take the SP Ring Road via the Indira Bridge near the airport to reach the newly built cricket stadium in Motera,”
Poverty-Hiding Wall
On the roadshow’s or 22km route, there is a stretch of half a kilometer between Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad which runs past 500 kutcha houses at the Dev Saran or Saraniyavaas slum area. The slum houses an estimated population of 2,500 people. But there is not much time so Ahmedabad government used Indian Jugaad, the solution to this – and started building a wall to conceal the slums from Trump’s motorcade.
The World’s Largest Cricket Stadium
Trump will be visiting a cricket stadium in Ahemdabad during his stay in India – the world’s largest stadium seems quite ideal. Sardar Patel Stadium in Motera, Ahmedabad, has seat 110,000 spectators, more than doubling its previous capacity of 54,000 and beating out Melbourne Cricket Ground, which was capable of hosting 90,000 spectators.
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Slum Eviction Notices
The ‘Gujarat model of development’, the organizers have also taken to beautifying the area surrounding the cricket stadium. The surrounding slums for over two decades – giving a whole new meaning to the old ‘70s Garibi Hataon slogan.
Shutting Down Paan Shops
After making a wall, they immediately realized that if they had to keep the damn thing clean, they had to move quickly. The organization’s health department identified the main culprits as paan and gutka chewers and targeted to close the selling of the product at the nearby Airport Circle – forcing the owners to close shop until given further notice.
Extreme Security Measures
Rs. 80-85 crore is going to get spent on Trump’s visit to the country (which constitutes 1.5% of the Gujarat Home Ministry Budget), almost half the total expense will go towards security measures. Rs. 300 crore on the Motera stadium and infrastructure development in its surrounding area.
