Of Namaste Trump and Amdavad's Circus Maximus

Ahmedabad: The land of Mahatma Gandhi will see the arrival of the most powerful man in the world on Monday. Amdavad, as the locals call it, is the Maximum City, for now.

It's like a show that Ahmedabad has never seen before, with many comparing it to the modern day Roman Circus Maximus.

The commercial capital of Gujarat has not seen police bandobast of the likes even when Chinese President Xi Jinping came in 2014 or when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited his home state after his emphatic win in the 2019 general elections.

The denizens of the former state capital say that life will come to a standstill on 24 February when US President Donald J. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump land in the historic city— planned in the Indo-Aryan tradition with well laid down road-transportation network.

A heritage city, christened by UNSESCO (India’s first), the old co-exist with the new here.

The entire city, founded by Ahmed Shah, from whom the modern day city takes its name, is decked with hoardings, some say numbering around 3,000, of the Namaste Trump event to be held on Monday at the Motera Stadium.

The city has been spruced up with a fresh coat of paint on the walls and the scrubbed Sabarmati river front. There are cardboard cut outs of Modi and Trump and digital hoardings everywhere.

The showpiece event, organized by the little-known Donald Trump Nagrik Abhinandan Samiti, will feature Modi and Trump address at the Motera cricket stadium in Ahmedabad, which has a capacity of more than 100,000. The event will be on the lines of the one organized by the Indian Americans in Houston for Modi last year.

As another US’ Boeing C-17 Globemaster heavy lift aircraft (also sold to the Indian Air Force by American aerospace major Boeing) appears on the horizon carrying supplies to the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, there is still no clarity about the origin of the Donald Trump Nagarik Abhivadan Samiti.

There are mixed feelings among the locals about the three-hour mega show, given POTUS’ diatribe about India before his trip and the massive spendings undertaken to organise it.

It is interesting to note that the same C-17 Globemaster of Indian Air Force was scheduled to fly to China on Friday to evacuate Indian citizens, but the special flight is awaiting clearance from Beijing. India and China engaged in a verbal spat on Saturday over Beijing’s seeming refusal to grant New Delhi permission to fly in an aircraft with medical supplies that would have evacuated about 100 of its nationals from Wuhan, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, on its way back.

India is looking forward to strengthening India-US strategic partnership during Trump’s 24-25 February visit, with discussions slated to span the gamut of bilateral, regional and global issues such as trade, strategic topics, counter-terrorism and the India-Pacific region. This comes at a time when India faces criticism from the US Congress over its Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and Kashmir policy following abrogation of Article 370.

To counter Beijing, the US seeks a bigger role for India in stabilising and maintaining the rule of law in the Indo-Pacific region–a large swathe of land and sea stretching all the way from the west coast of the US to the shores of east Africa.

The city earlier ruled by the Vaghela’ of Dwarka saw Mahmud Begada, the grandson of Ahmed Shah, the Mughals, the Marathas and the British East India Company fight over centuries. Perhaps the historic city will provide the perfect backdrop for a pushback against China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in the India-Pacific region with a larger engagement of the Quad grouping.