US President Donald Trump is on a 2-day visit to India right now. Now, it is no secret that PM Modi and the Donald are in awe of each other, as they themselves have confessed multiple times.
The two leaders haven’t met each other since the Howdy Modi event in Texas last year. And given Trump’s love for showmanship and this being his first visit to India as the President of the United States, the Indian government has left no stone unturned to make sure this is a memorable visit for him.
1. Slums have been demolished to construct walls in Ahmedabad to hide the poor from Donald Trump.
Trump loves walls. In fact, he won the US election in 2016 on the same promise. Anyhow, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has built a half-a-kilometre longwall to hide the Dev Saran slum that is on the route Trump would be taking, The Indian Express reported.
Similarly, other slums have been demolished and walls have been built in their place to hide the poor people from the US President’s eyes.
2. All paan shops have been shut down so that people don’t spit on the streets and walls.
3. Stray animals(dogs, monkeys, even nilgais) have been caged so that they don’t cause a nuisance on the streets.
4. Walls across the route to the Taj Mahal have been freshly painted by professional artists.
Trump’s love for walls knows no bounds as we have established before. So artists have been hired to freshly paint them walls on his way to the Taj Mahal.
5. And as per the usual, roads have been cleaned, dividers have been newly painted for Trump’s arrival.
Machines have reportedly been hired to keep the roads clean. Financial Express has reported that the route from Keria Airport to the Taj Mahal has been given a makeover.
6. Cleaning the Yamuna might have been a major election issue, but its polluted state had never caused this big a headache for the government.
According to NDTV, the Adityanath-government in Uttar Pradesh government has released 500 cusecs of water into the Yamuna river. Mind you, this is being done to get rid of the smell emanating from the river because of the polluted water.
However, there is no scientific proof that it does anything to clean up the river.
7. Every house on route to the Taj Mahal is being checked to make sure the Obama incident isn’t repeated.
Former President Barach Obama’s visit to the Taj Mahal had been cancelled last minute due to security reasons. So to make sure that nothing of the sort happens again, UP police is checking every house and asking hotels to submit details of those staying with them, The Hindu reported.
8. In what can only be called a very interesting approach, security agencies have deployed five langurs on the route of Trump’s convoy.
If you are asking why, well, the langurs apparently help in keeping away other monkeys. Will it work?
We have no idea. But have we employed monkeys to get rid of other monkeys? You are damn right, we have.
9. The Taj Mahal has been cleaned for the first time in more than 300 years for Trump’s visit.
Mind you, this is just a few of the exhausting arrangements the Indian government is making to ensure that the POTUS’ visit to India goes smooth.
