USA President Donald Trump and his wife, First lady Melania Trump, will be visiting India on a two-day state visit from February 24.
The Indian government has been preparing for Donald Trump’s visit at a ‘war scale’ but, what is most surprising is how Narendra Modi’s development model, his home state Gujarat, is preparing to save its prestige.
In Ahmedabad, boundary walls are being built to cover the slums. Dogs are being captured from the route on which Trump will travel. More than ₹50 crores are being spent to beautify the route with flowers, and the roads, which the Trump couple will travel on, are being repaired.
It seems like the state government is repairing the roads after years, just because of this visit, otherwise, the poor condition of the road has been an old issue.
So, the disheartening part is that the government has the money to repair and beautify when Mr Trump is coming, but it had no intention of repairing the roads for its taxpayers, whose money is being used to repair roads now.
Not to forget that Mr Modi is the longest-serving Chief Minister (CM) of Gujarat, with his term spanning from October 2001 to May 2014, and it is claimed that he was a ‘development brand CM’ but, unfortunately, even after 6 years of becoming the Prime Minister, his home state needs to cover its slums.
Also, it is the same Gujarat where the Statue of Unity, a statue of Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel, was constructed at the cost of around ₹2,989 crores. Just imagine, what if the government spent even half of this money on the development and the welfare of the people living in these slums!
It can be argued that this Trump-Modi meet can lead to a new strategic partnership, and boost the economy, and so, we are trying to impress Trump. But this argument is separate from the fact that Narendra Modi’s home state needs boundary walls to cover the slums and India’s poverty, and now the international media will make fun of our country for this foolish act.
In November, the present CM of Gujarat, Vijay Rupani, (from the BJP) bought a jet for ₹191 crores, and surprisingly, the BJP defended this step.
Our PM, who calls himself a fakir (religious ascetic), has visited 59 countries as of December 2019, with a total expenditure to the tune of thousands of crores. The official website of the Prime Minister Office (PMO) has not updated the total expenditure yet.
For the security of the PM, ₹1.62 crore money is spent daily from the taxpayers’ money.
India’s economy is currently in its worst state in 42 years, with issues like falling Rupee, job cuts, a poor GDP, low economic growth and inflation, but the government seems more concerned with showing off. It is shameful and looks like ‘British Raj India’, where Indians are covering its poverty from the foreign delegates.
We are an emerging superpower, and I think our PM is considered to be one of the strongest leaders in the world, and so, what is required is real development and not superficial covering up.
If the government would have spent money on these slums, or would have tried to achieve real development, then we would not have faced this embarrassment.
It is a clear case of misplaced priorities, where the CM of Gujarat is buying a jet from taxpayers’ money, but slums continue to exist and instead of development, boundary walls are built to cover the pain of these people.
We need to prioritise what we want: the prosperity of our farmers, the youth and the marginalised, or showing-off to repay the ‘Howdy Modi event in Houston last year!
Time to introspect!