Shame in India! Wall to mask slums during Trump's Guj visit

Ahmedabad: Undertaking beatification drives before the head of a powerful state visits the country is not so unusual, but the Gujarat administration has gone a step further for US President Donald Trump.

Four American senators have written a letter to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo expressing concern about the internet blockade in Kashmir and the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

In their letter said they were writing as "longtime friends of India" on the "troubling actions" taken by the Narendra Modi government.

The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation has decided to conceal slum communities and any sights of poverty that the US President may deem unseemly by building half-a-kilometre long wall on the stretch that leads to Gandhinagar from Ahmedabad airport, the Indian Express has reported.

The wall, with a height of six or seven feet, will come up alongside the road connecting the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport to Indira Bridge.

This is the route that the US President and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will take on February 24 for their roadshow, when the two visit the state for a massive event at the newly built Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Stadium on the lines of 'Howdy, Modi', which was held in Houston last year.

The wall is being built, officials told the newspaper, to hide the more than 500 kutcha houses at the Dev Saran or Saraniyavaas slum area. The slums have an estimated population of 2,500.

Once the slums are concealed, plantation of date palms will be done along the stretch as part of the beautification drive. Roads that were in dire need for repair and were not resurfaced for years will also be re-laid for the visit.

In all, 16 roads will be resurfaced for Trump's visit and decorative lighting may also be installed along the route the US President takes.

The overall cost of the beautification is expected to be around Rs 50 crore, the Ahmedabad Mirror reported.

Before the visit of Trump's daughter Ivanka to Hyderabad in 2017, a similar exercise was taken up as police rounded up beggars from streets and detained them to hide the poverty on display.

Beautification drives were also held when Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his wife Akie Abe visited Gujarat for two days in 2017, and when China's President Xi Jinping visited in 2014.