After Roadshow, Netanyahu’s “Inspiring Visit” To Gandhi Ashram: 10 Points

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today received his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu in Ahmedabad. The Israeli Prime Minister is on a day-long visit to PM Modi’s home state Gujarat. The two leaders held a roadshow with an eight-km ride in a motorcade — a change in plan from an open-top vehicle decked with flowers due to security reasons — from the airport to the Sabarmati Ashram. Some 50,000 people lined up on the route that the two leaders took, and there was heavy security, including the deployment of Israeli snipers.

1. Mr Netanyahu and his wife, after reaching Sabarmati Ashram, were shown a spinning wheel. PM Modi then took the couple for a walk about the riverside campus, where at one of the lawns both leaders flew a kite. The Israeli Prime Minister also made an entry in the visitors’ logbook.
2. Mr Netanyahu is spending about seven hours in Gujarat before leaving for Mumbai. Later, PM Modi and Prime Minister Netanyahu will inaugurate the iCreate Centre at Deo Dholera Village in Ahmedabad and will also visit a centre of excellence for agriculture established by Israel in Sabarkantha, some 100 km away.
3. A village located on a small hill 10 km from the Rann of Kutch is set to receive the Gal-Mobile water de-salinisation and purification vehicle, a gift that Mr Netanyahu has brought for PM Modi. During PM Modi’s visit to Israel in July last year, the two leaders rode the mobile unit on the country’s Olga beach; it can purify up to 20,000 litres of sea water per day.
4. Traffic was blocked along the route of the roadshow till noon, the Gujarat Police said. A kilometre-long periphery was a fortress today with 12 teams of the elite ‘Chetak commandos’, Quick Response Teams, the Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad and the police guarding venues.
5. Special squads were deployed on high-rise buildings along the route and also on the Sabarmati river in speedboats for when the leaders are at the Ashram.
6. Around 50 tableaux had been put up on the roadside along the route, accommodating people from different states of the country who welcomed the leaders as they passed by. One of the tableaux showed tribal dancers from Junagadh in Gujarat.
7. Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara arrived in India on Sunday on a six-day tour. PM Modi broke protocol to receive them at the airport and hosted them at a private dinner without officials attending.
8. The visit has been marked by warmth between the two leaders, with Mr Netanyahu calling PM Modi a “revolutionary leader” and the Prime Minister referring to his guest as “my friend Bibi.”
9. PM Modi has called the Gujarat visit an opportunity “to see the fulfilment of the promise, which our mutual cooperation holds in diverse areas such as agriculture, technology, and innovation”.
10. Benjamin Netanyahu heads next to Mumbai where he will, on Thursday, open a memorial for 26/11 terror attack victims at Chabad House. Eleven-year-old Moshe Holtzman, who lost his parents, Rabbi Gavriel  Holtzberg and Rivka Holtzberg, in the attack, will also be present at the ceremony.

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