Gandhinagar: With PM Modi and his governments pulling out all stops, a rousing welcome, designed to dazzle, awaits US President Donald Trump and his wife Melanie during their three-hour visit to the Prime Minister’s home state on Monday.
The suspense around the distinguished guest’s visit to Mahatma Gandhi’s Sabarmati ashram has diminished somewhat and the trip is on as per the revised advisory that has been put out.
However, the much-hyped roadshow to the spanking new Motera stadium has been truncated; nonetheless, over a one-lakh strong crowd will be in attendance when the two leaders hold forth in a bid to lend fizz to the flattening relations between the two countries.
The President and the First Lady begin their two-day visit in Ahmeda-bad where they are slated to touchdown around noon to be received by PM Modi whose altered schedule brings him into the town only hours earlier.
After the ceremonials at the airport and the probable ashram visit, the three distinguished entities are slated to drive through an eight km stretch which aims at providing a glimpse of the country’s varied cultural and historical heritage.
Twenty-eight stages have been built along the route, on which artistes will be performing. After the Ahmedabad visit, Trump and Melanie leave straight for Agra where their visit is focused on the Moghul-era monument to undying love -- the Taj Mahal.
The first lady is believed to be keen to watch the Taj in the light of the setting sun and then leave for New Delhi.
The last minute controversy over the organisers of the Ahmedabad event apart -- whether it is the government or a city mayor headed public panel -- the fact is that Gujarat has strained very nerve and sinew in the body of the Prime Minister’s home state to make the short visit a grand success.
Under the hi-tech shroud of an all-encompassing cover of American security and the matching efforts of their Indian counterparts, Gujarat has deployed 2000 buses to draw people from across the state to fill up the 1.10 lakh capacity stadium which the leaders of the two largest democracies will address.
‘Namaste President Trump’ is supposed to be India’s enhanced extravaganza – an answer to the ‘Howdy Modi’ event held at Houston last year. And Trump’s tweets of the last few days indicate he is earnestly looking forward to the event at hand.
The opposition parties are understandably upset at being left out of the event which is out and out a Modi show designed for the benefit of Trump who is eyeing the large chunk of Indian American voters -- a fair number of them Gujaratis -- in his year of re-election.
The entire mass converging on the stadium will be sporting ‘Namaste President Trump’ caps. Since the crowd will be confined within for long hours, to answer security needs, arrangements have been made for 3-lakh buttermilk packs and 7 lakh water cups, besides a hundred washrooms and a 25-bed hospital to meet their varied requirements.
Though Modi is known to be partial to bringing his distinguished guests to his ‘model state’, the arrangements this time far exceed those of the others who have visited Ahmedabad on official business ever since he took over as Prime Minister in 2014.
Even the presentation of the State budget in the Vidhan Sabha has been rescheduled in view of the event, to February 26.
Earlier Chinese President X Jinping, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have come calling.
The two leaders are expected to be in talks in Delhi on Tuesday which are likely to focus on the strategic partnership between the two countries and on trade.
The US increasingly looks to India as a buffer against China’s growing power in the Indo-Pacific region but seeks concessions designed for a better deal from India in some sectors.
