Breaking away from tradition, Prime Minister Narendra Modi travelled to the airport without Special Protection Group (SPG) cavalcade. Modi had gone to the airport to the receive Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina who arrived in Delhi for a 4-day visit.
Modi travelled from Lok Kalyan Marg to Delhi Airport without any no route restrictions. Modi went to receive Hasina, who is visiting India for the first since Modi assumed office in 2014, as a special gesture.
Praising him for the initiative, Minister of State for External Affairs MJ Akbar said, “This is an illuminating example of the Prime Ministers’s simplicity and humility.”
PM Modi’s decision to break the protocol comes soon after a video went viral last week where an ambulance was made to wait for a VVIP cavalcade to pass. The video showed policemen refusing to move aside to give way to an ambulance which carried a bleeding boy. The vehicle was stuck for due to the barricading for Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak’s convoy.
The video also showed that several other car owners moved aside but the police did not remove the barricades. However, police refuted claims saying that they helped the ambulance pass.
‘Delighted’ to have the Bangladeshi PM in India, Modi tweeted: “PM Sheikh Hasina and I are determined to take the
relationship between our nations to a new level.”
The two Prime Minister will hold wide-ranging talks with Modi on Saturday during which India is also set to announce a line of credit of USD 500 million to Bangladesh for military supplies.
