US President Donald Trump has started the 'engagements leg' of his India visit on an arguably embarrassing note! After his arrival at the Ahmedabad Airport on Monday, Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi went straight to Sabarmati Ashram, the residence of Mahatma Gandhi.
In his entry in Sabarmati Ashram's visitors book, Trump wrote, 'To my great friend Prime Minister Modi, Thank you for this wonderful visit!'. As is obvious, the entry contains no reference to Mahatma Gandhi.
Sabarmati Ashram trustee Kartikeya Sarabhai told ANI, "US president was happy to visit the ashram. While leaving, he said that it was a very peaceful experience and appreciated the simple living style of Gandhiji."
On his departure from Sabarmati Ashram, Trump was presented with several gifts including Mahatama Gandhi's biography, a Charkha (spinning wheel) and a marble statue of 3 monkeys symbolising ‘see no evil, speak no evil and hear no evil’.
Trump was shown Hriday Kunj, the room in Sabarmati Ashram where Gandhi lived.
Not surprisingly, the absence of any reference to Gandhi in Trump's entry was noticed. Congress MP Manish Tewari tweeted about what then US president Barack Obama wrote about Gandhi in his visit to Rajghat in 2015. Obama had written the "spirit of Gandhi is very much alive in India today. And it remains a great gift to the world".
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Modi has taken multiple world leaders to Sabarmati Ashram: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Japan PM Shinzo Abe and China's President Xi Jinping.
During his visit to Sabarmati Ashram in January 2018, Netanyahu wrote in the visitors book that it was "an inspiring visit to the hearth of one of humanity's great prophets of inspiration—Mahatma Gandhi".
In September last year, during Modi's visit to the US, Trump had referred to the prime minister as being the 'father of India', a term usually associated with Mahatma Gandhi.
"I remember India before, not intimately, but I remember India before, it was very torn, it was a lot fighting and he brought it all together. Like a father would bring it together. Maybe he is the father of India. We will call him the father of India. He brought things together, you don't hear that anymore," Donald Trump told mediapersons.
