U.S. President Donald Trump with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The two will meet in India on Monday. (Photo: White House/Flickr)
Feb 20, 2020
When President Donald Trump arrives in Ahmedabad, India on Monday, he's expected to be greeted by roughly 100,000 cheering Indians along a sparkling clean route to the world's largest cricket stadium where another crowd of 110,000 will attend a rally with the U.S. president and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
It's pure spectacle.
Modi and his government have built walls along the president's route to hide the slums lining the route, a sign of India's high levels of inequality, from Trump and his retinue.
"Trump promised to build a wall, India did it, just before his arrival," tweeted journalist Rana Ayyub.
\u201cIndia built a wall ahead of Trump\u2019s visit that some say is meant to \u2018hide poor people\u2019\u201d— NowThis (@NowThis) 1582288380
The cheering crowds on the street and at the Sardar Patel Stadium will be made up of loyalists and party members.
As the New York Timesreported:
Just to stand along the road that Mr. Trump's motorcade will travel for a few minutes on Monday requires a special pass, given to carefully vetted party members, their allies and special groups handpicked by the government. This is a level of control Mr. Modi can deliver in India that is very different from Britain, for example, where Mr. Trump treaded carefully to avoid the optics of hostile crowds.
Ahmedabad is located in the state of Gujarat, where Modi was once governor. Riots in 2002 in the state that killed nearly 800 Muslims and have been described as a pogrom by scholars spurred accusations that the violence was implicitly encouraged by Modi, leading to a travel ban to the U.S. until his election as prime minister in 2014.
At a rally in Colorado on Thursday, Trump claimed that 6-10 million people would come out to see him during his visit to Ahmedabad, a grossly inflated number.
\u201c\u201cI\u2019m going to india next week and we\u2019re talking trade,\u201d Trump says at campaign rally in Colorado. \u201cI hear they\u2019re going to have 10 million people\u2014anywhere from 6 to 10 million people\u201d lining streets on the route to stadium.\u201d— Jennifer Jacobs (@Jennifer Jacobs) 1582250589
Trump and Modi are expected to talk trade and arms deals during the two-day visit, which will be punctuated with visits to a number of cities and the Taj Mahal.
The Washington Postvisited the slums along Trump's route being hidden by the wall and talked to residents.
Reshma Saraniya, 29, has lived in the slum, a broken-down collection of homes with corrugated tin roofs, her whole life. Earlier this month, she was at her job at a nearby hotel when neighbors called her to say the city authorities had arrived to demolish about 20 huts, including the one where she had lived with her 11-year-old son for the past two years. Saraniya knew a demolition could happen, she said, her voice vibrating with emotion, but she received no warning it was imminent. Now there is ragged earth and a cement wall where she used to live.
Indian activist Aswathy Jwala protested the building of the wall, standing near the slum's entrance with a handwritten sign.
"This is our India, our real India," the sign read. "Don't hide our India. Expose our India and work to make it better."
Join Us: News for people demanding a better world
Common Dreams is powered by optimists who believe in the power of informed and engaged citizens to ignite and enact change to make the world a better place. We're hundreds of thousands strong, but every single supporter makes the difference. Your contribution supports this bold media model—free, independent, and dedicated to reporting the facts every day. Stand with us in the fight for economic equality, social justice, human rights, and a more sustainable future. As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover the issues the corporate media never will. |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
When President Donald Trump arrives in Ahmedabad, India on Monday, he's expected to be greeted by roughly 100,000 cheering Indians along a sparkling clean route to the world's largest cricket stadium where another crowd of 110,000 will attend a rally with the U.S. president and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
It's pure spectacle.
Modi and his government have built walls along the president's route to hide the slums lining the route, a sign of India's high levels of inequality, from Trump and his retinue.
"Trump promised to build a wall, India did it, just before his arrival," tweeted journalist Rana Ayyub.
\u201cIndia built a wall ahead of Trump\u2019s visit that some say is meant to \u2018hide poor people\u2019\u201d— NowThis (@NowThis) 1582288380
The cheering crowds on the street and at the Sardar Patel Stadium will be made up of loyalists and party members.
As the New York Timesreported:
Just to stand along the road that Mr. Trump's motorcade will travel for a few minutes on Monday requires a special pass, given to carefully vetted party members, their allies and special groups handpicked by the government. This is a level of control Mr. Modi can deliver in India that is very different from Britain, for example, where Mr. Trump treaded carefully to avoid the optics of hostile crowds.
Ahmedabad is located in the state of Gujarat, where Modi was once governor. Riots in 2002 in the state that killed nearly 800 Muslims and have been described as a pogrom by scholars spurred accusations that the violence was implicitly encouraged by Modi, leading to a travel ban to the U.S. until his election as prime minister in 2014.
At a rally in Colorado on Thursday, Trump claimed that 6-10 million people would come out to see him during his visit to Ahmedabad, a grossly inflated number.
\u201c\u201cI\u2019m going to india next week and we\u2019re talking trade,\u201d Trump says at campaign rally in Colorado. \u201cI hear they\u2019re going to have 10 million people\u2014anywhere from 6 to 10 million people\u201d lining streets on the route to stadium.\u201d— Jennifer Jacobs (@Jennifer Jacobs) 1582250589
Trump and Modi are expected to talk trade and arms deals during the two-day visit, which will be punctuated with visits to a number of cities and the Taj Mahal.
The Washington Postvisited the slums along Trump's route being hidden by the wall and talked to residents.
Reshma Saraniya, 29, has lived in the slum, a broken-down collection of homes with corrugated tin roofs, her whole life. Earlier this month, she was at her job at a nearby hotel when neighbors called her to say the city authorities had arrived to demolish about 20 huts, including the one where she had lived with her 11-year-old son for the past two years. Saraniya knew a demolition could happen, she said, her voice vibrating with emotion, but she received no warning it was imminent. Now there is ragged earth and a cement wall where she used to live.
Indian activist Aswathy Jwala protested the building of the wall, standing near the slum's entrance with a handwritten sign.
"This is our India, our real India," the sign read. "Don't hide our India. Expose our India and work to make it better."
When President Donald Trump arrives in Ahmedabad, India on Monday, he's expected to be greeted by roughly 100,000 cheering Indians along a sparkling clean route to the world's largest cricket stadium where another crowd of 110,000 will attend a rally with the U.S. president and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
It's pure spectacle.
Modi and his government have built walls along the president's route to hide the slums lining the route, a sign of India's high levels of inequality, from Trump and his retinue.
"Trump promised to build a wall, India did it, just before his arrival," tweeted journalist Rana Ayyub.
\u201cIndia built a wall ahead of Trump\u2019s visit that some say is meant to \u2018hide poor people\u2019\u201d— NowThis (@NowThis) 1582288380
The cheering crowds on the street and at the Sardar Patel Stadium will be made up of loyalists and party members.
As the New York Timesreported:
Just to stand along the road that Mr. Trump's motorcade will travel for a few minutes on Monday requires a special pass, given to carefully vetted party members, their allies and special groups handpicked by the government. This is a level of control Mr. Modi can deliver in India that is very different from Britain, for example, where Mr. Trump treaded carefully to avoid the optics of hostile crowds.
Ahmedabad is located in the state of Gujarat, where Modi was once governor. Riots in 2002 in the state that killed nearly 800 Muslims and have been described as a pogrom by scholars spurred accusations that the violence was implicitly encouraged by Modi, leading to a travel ban to the U.S. until his election as prime minister in 2014.
At a rally in Colorado on Thursday, Trump claimed that 6-10 million people would come out to see him during his visit to Ahmedabad, a grossly inflated number.
\u201c\u201cI\u2019m going to india next week and we\u2019re talking trade,\u201d Trump says at campaign rally in Colorado. \u201cI hear they\u2019re going to have 10 million people\u2014anywhere from 6 to 10 million people\u201d lining streets on the route to stadium.\u201d— Jennifer Jacobs (@Jennifer Jacobs) 1582250589
Trump and Modi are expected to talk trade and arms deals during the two-day visit, which will be punctuated with visits to a number of cities and the Taj Mahal.
The Washington Postvisited the slums along Trump's route being hidden by the wall and talked to residents.
Reshma Saraniya, 29, has lived in the slum, a broken-down collection of homes with corrugated tin roofs, her whole life. Earlier this month, she was at her job at a nearby hotel when neighbors called her to say the city authorities had arrived to demolish about 20 huts, including the one where she had lived with her 11-year-old son for the past two years. Saraniya knew a demolition could happen, she said, her voice vibrating with emotion, but she received no warning it was imminent. Now there is ragged earth and a cement wall where she used to live.
Indian activist Aswathy Jwala protested the building of the wall, standing near the slum's entrance with a handwritten sign.
"This is our India, our real India," the sign read. "Don't hide our India. Expose our India and work to make it better."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.