Foreign guests being invited to Gujarat instead of New Delhi
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is visiting India, is quite giddy with the grand welcome in Gujarat. His plane landed in Ahmedabad on Thursday. The process of welcoming him, which started from the airport, continues on the second day of the tour. Johnson looks mesmerized by this. He even said that he was welcomed in Gujarat as if he were Amitabh Bachchan or Sachin Tendulkar. Earlier, at the inaugural ceremony of the ‘Global AYUSH Investment and Innovation Summit’ in Gandhinagar, Prime Minister Modi praised World Health Organization (WHO) chief Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus so much that he could not even breathe. PM Modi also gave him the name of ‘Tulsi Bhai’ and he got giddy. However, our focus is not on the welcome of foreign guests to India or their appreciation by Prime Minister Modi, but the invitation of heads of government or heads of state to Gujarat instead of New Delhi.
Gujarat became the center of diplomacy instead of Delhi
Before the formation of the new government at the Center under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the year 2014, New Delhi used to be the center of diplomacy. The heads of state or top leaders of the government who came to India used to come directly to New Delhi. If any foreign guest expressed his desire to go to another place, then the Indian government used to make arrangements for his travel. But usually he would come directly to Delhi to talk to the Prime Minister and meet the President, attend various meetings and then go back to his country. This tradition has changed under the Modi government. Prime Minister Narendra Modi started inviting foreign guests to cities other than New Delhi and his main emphasis has been Ahmedabad in Gujarat. In fact, before becoming the Prime Minister, Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat for about 14 years. Due to the development work done in Gujarat, he was seen as a development man across the country and in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, BJP got his face as the prime ministerial candidate and the party got a bumper victory.
Understand the purpose of inviting foreign guests to Gujarat
Prime Minister Modi’s strategy has been to invite foreign guests to Gujarat and show how the state has galloped on the path of development due to his leadership. This makes foreign guests feel without saying anything about what Modi’s expectations will be from them. In fact, the Modi government’s plan has been to motivate the state governments to attract investments from abroad on their own. In this context, it is a profitable strategy to invite foreign guests to other cities of the country other than New Delhi, but the other side is that since 2018 till now at least 18 heads of state and government have come to Gujarat. These include Chinese President Xi Jinping, US President Donald Trump, then Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, then Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa and now United Kingdom (UK) Prime Minister Boris Johnson etc.
Some foreign guests are also invited to Varanasi
Apart from the cities of Gujarat, if foreign guests have debuted in any other city, then it is Varanasi – the parliamentary constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Apart from Shinzo Abe, many foreign guests including French President Emmanuel Macron and now Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth were welcomed. The special thing is that Prime Minister Narendra Modi stays with foreign guests only on his visit to Gujarat or Varanasi. If a foreign guest visits other cities of the country, then PM Modi is not seen with him. For example, some foreign leaders went to Bodh Gaya but did not get the support of Prime Minister Modi. Most of the states of the country are completely untouched by the arrival of foreign guests.
