Rather than building a wall to block Donald Trump’s view, the government should build walls for homes
Recently, news surfaced about a wall being constructed by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation to hide a slum cluster from the view of President of US, Donald Trump. The wall is almost a kilometre long and will hide almost 500 houses and a total of 2500 people.
Wouldn’t it have been better, if the government would have made houses (made up with walls) for those slums rather than building a wall to stop Donald Trump’s vision? It would have not just helped the people of slums but also International media would have covered it differently.
The decision to build a wall to block the vision of Donald Trump is a dent to India’s image
The Western media including the Reuters, BBC, Independent and others reported this matter and we could only imagine, how much it would have dented the image of India across the globe. We hope foreign investors wouldn’t have received this news.
The people residing in the Rajniwas Slum (between the Ahmedabad airport and Gandhinagar), where the wall is being built are astonished to see sudden construction of the wall. It would have definitely hit their mind that these walls on roads could have been walls of their homes, which could have saved them from extreme weather conditions.
This is not the first time, India has tried to not show the reality of India to a foreign leader. In 2014, when Chinese President Xi Jinping came to visit Ahmedabad, green curtains were used to block his vision. Same happened at the time of Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit in Gujrat in 2017. The Gujrat government had used green curtains to hide the Saraniyavaas slums from foreign dignitaries at Vibrant Gujrat Global Summit, 2017. Nehru camp, a 20-year-slum in Delhi was hidden at the time of Commonwealth Games 2010.
Read more: Life in Kashmir: Point of view of an insider
How the US President has a special relation with walls
US President Donald Trump has a special relation with walls. Trump administration has built more than 160km of border walls to secure the US border from Mexico and more is to be built.
Donald Trump’s first-ever visit in India as US President along with First Lady Melania Trump will last for two days. The Couple will travel to New Delhi and Ahmedabad. Trump is scheduled to participate in a huge public meeting at the newly- build Motera stadium. The event is being called “Kem Cho”, Gujrati version of “Howdy”. The event is organized as the replica of the ‘Howdy Modi’ event but with more people. Trump and other American representatives will first visit Sabarmati Ashram to pay tribute to Mahatma Gandhi.
Motera stadium has a capacity of 1.10 lakh individuals, more than the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Australia, the biggest cricket stadium in the world. Trump will also inaugurate the Motera stadium.
Have a news story, an interesting write-up or simply a suggestion? Write to us at info@oneworldnews.com
