It was a charged-up Monday morning for Ahmedabad as visitors from across the State and parts of India thronged to the newly-constructed Motera cricket stadium to witness history being created.
What the visiting US President Donald Trump called it to be a “profound honour” to be at the world’s largest cricket stadium, people formed a human sea to get a sight of the American leader. The sight provided the spectacle of a lifetime, even to the visiting Trump family, which included the President, First Lady Melania Trump, their daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner.
The stadium accommodated about 1.2 lakh people, most of them were brought from districts of Gujarat. Over 2,200 State transport buses were specially hired to ferry people from parts of State. Men, women and students donned white caps with India’s tricolor and the US flag printed on it with ‘Namaste Trump’ logo. The air was filled with chants of “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” (India is Great), even as some wore face masks of Donald Trump giving the Stadium a true colour of Indo-US confluence.
The cultural programmes with Gujarati folk singers and Bollywood artists’ performances kept the crowed entertained till the two leaders arrived by about 1 p.m. AR Rahman’s Maa Tujhe Salaam song and the movie Uri ’s popular slogan - ‘ How’s the Josh’ (how’s the excitement), further fuelled the excitement in the jam-packed stadium.
However, the fervour got a setback for most people, when Trump started delivering a speech in English. While most of the Gujarati-speaking crowd couldn’t follow, some started to make an exit from the stadium without any qualms.
Language barrier
“I could hardly understand what he (Trump) said. But will read it in tomorrow’s papers. What matters is that Modi could mobilise such large number of people at one place and bring an American President to address them. Isn’t it a success itself?” said a grocer from Chhota Udepur – who travelled about 200 kms with about 40 others from his village to the event.
Another lady from Mehsana said it was enough for them to get a sight of the US President and hear Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaking. “That was enough for us. Also, the heat was getting unbearable so we left the remaining part of the event and came out,” she said.
Trump in his address narrated achievements of the Modi government over the past five years.
“Under PM Modi, for the first time in history, every village in India now has access to electricity. (About) 320 million people are connected to the Internet. The pace of highway construction has more than doubled. More than 70 million more households have access to cooking fuel. And 600 million more people have access to basic sanitation. Incredibly, 12 Indian citizens are lifted out of extreme poverty every single minute of every single day,” Trump stated crediting Modi for his “hardwork and devotion.”
In an election year in the US, it appeared that both Trump and Modi were heaping praises on each other trying to score political brownie points.